Day 9 Today at Wimbledon

for the last few standing in the singles.

Well today was going to have to go some to match yesterday and we have

the former men's doubles champions here at Wimbledon, John McEnroe and

Peter fleming to offer pearls of wisdom. We are here until 10 past 9

tonight. But there is only one way to start with the most eagerly

anticipated game in this country for 361 days! So it is the defending

men's singles champions against a man so many thought of a future

champion at some point. Andy Murray waving to crowd, against Grigor

Dimitrov from Bulgaria. A sense of trepidation from the home fans. Andy

hadn't been tested up to this point and this would be a real test. So it

proved. Here we are with Murray about to lose the first set by 6-1.

One of many long rallies, Murray was broken twice in that set and the

force was very much with that man. Here we are in the second set with

Dimitrov leading 4-3 and he has got a break.

COMMENTATOR: One of the very few unforced errors from Grigor

Dimitrov. JIMMY CONNORS: That is the first

time he has been ahead on the Dimitrov serve I think. Dim prove

will be keen that history repeats itself. Because he got out of that

game with some fine serving. That might be the difference.

Dimitrov down 0-30 comes up with two big serves, where Andy has thrown it

in at 95. Is that confidence? It is another poor error and a shot

you don't ed a -- don't expect Murray to miss. There is a few

worried faces around here. The magnitude of the game isn't lost

on Dimitrov. That is why there have been a couple of unforced errors so

far. It was a good return by Dimitrov,

but I didn't think it would catch Andy often balance quite that badly.

Looks like he is walking in mud at the moment. He is not moving his

feet well. Dimitrov moving brilliantly.

TIM HENMAN: It is surprising at this stage, the first three points are

unforced errors. Both players will be looking to cut those out. In this

position, Tim, if you were playing, would you be more aggressive or be

passive and let a few errors come. You have got to play to your

strengths. That was being aggressive, getting to the net.

Sensational play. Such acrobatic defence from Dimitrov. And you

Sensational play. Such acrobatic see just contorting his body to

somehow stay in the point. He covered a lot of ground that point.

See how he recovers? Andy can't be satisfied with playing

the ball short down the middle. He has given Dimitrov every opportunity

to do what he wants. Leave it in the middle of the court with Dimitrov's

forehand, you're going to do a lot of running. Andy's got to play to

his strengths and he has got to do the basics well and not dropping the

ball in the middle of the court. UMPIRE: Murray is challenging the

call. I thought that was a good approach.

He came in, he stayed low, it had a good slice on it. Dimitrov held his

ground on that one-handed backhand and ripped it cross-court.

Beautiful. That was not as easy as he ended up making it look.

Especially at the stage of the match where we are hat. -- we are at. This

is no easy task. He comes in, look how concentrated he is on the ball.

A nice easy touch. Gives him two set points.

That is so good from Dimitrov. The champion's in a big hole, but he was

two sets down to Verdasco last year. Better get digging at 2-3 down.

You see where his body was facing after he hit that shot - almost

facing the players' box and pulling off it far too quickly.

That is great movement around the court by both players. Andy had

quite a little bit off guard there. He runs around, a good, firm shot.

That is the one. Dimitrov took a bit of a gamble. He

was well inside the baseline. He has been caught by some serves out wide.

Didn't allow the same fate to befall him there.

Close to the edge of the abyss for Murray here in the third set. No

room for error. Did he do it again on that forehand. Did he pull off.

It is a similar thing, pulling off the shot and he can't afford these

unforced errors at this stage. UMPIRE: Murray is challenging the

call. The ball was called out. Well all too soon the reign of king

Andy was all over. As soon it was time for the postmortems. But Grigor

Dimitrov was brilliant. Nadal departed yesterday. Here was another

of big four downed by a shooting star. He is the man who could be

king. I'm excited. I'm happy I went through that match in straight sets.

It is never coming to play against Andy. Especially with the home

crowd. I have been fortunate today and you know just happy. You say you

were fortunate, you played pretty well. Maybe Andy wasn't at his usual

level. Did you sense there was an opportunity early doors. As soon as

we started warming up, I sensed his game is not at the highest level.

But I was feeling confident and I knew it would be a good match. The

first set helped me get into a good rhythm and then I was holding my

ground throughout the match and second set tie-break was the key

moment for me and coming into the third set I knew I had lot of things

under control. The touchest loss was losing in the final in 2012. --

toughest. But I need to go away and make a lot of improvements in my

game. I have lost a couple of matches in the last few slams, where

I have lost in straight sets and played poorly. So I need to have a

think about things, what are the things I need to improve and get

myself in better shape and work even harder. Because even's starting to

get better. The younger guys are obviously now becoming more mature

and improving all the time and I need to make some improvements to my

game. So gentlemen of jury, what is the verdict? John? First, I think we

should put things in perspective. You waited 77 years. It is sort of

if one is saying what is wrong? So I found it interesting that Dimitrov

said he saw in the warm up, I have never heard that before. I have

heard a lot of things. But never say in the warm up this guy was looking

tired or flat. Finally, I don't know about this Amelie Mauresmo coaching

thing, because it is early. Can we come on to that. What about the

match itself? The match itself is a classic case of a hungier guy that

wanted it against a guy who woke up on the wrong side of bed. He didn't

mail it in, but he didn't look like he believed he physically could do

it at that stage. Dim prove was so -- dim prove was so come fortsable

from the baseline. And the one-handed sliced backhand bothered

Murray. How much was this about Murray being below par and Dimitrov

playing a tremendous match? He has been confident and played so well

throughout the ten days. I didn't see more than snippets of match. But

it looked as though Murray on big points didn't know what he wanted to

do, whether he wanted to just push and allow Dimitrov to attack him. He

served a double fault on break point. He came to net in the

tie-breaker, where he would normally try to control him from the back of

the court. 37 unforced errors, you won't minute doing that. I have

never seen Andy Murray miss more easy balls. So how much did it have

to do with him having aer the tribl day -- having a terrible day and

imtrov -- Dimitrov. We have talked about him for a number of years. But

he is the real deal. Circumstances led him to Roger Rashid and he has

finally got into his head. Made him realise, a long with a lot of tough

losses, you had better get in shape. It is embarrassing when you cramp up

in a major. If Roger ra sheepd is doing the right -- Roger Rashid is

doing the right thing, where are we with Amelie Mauresmo. How can you

judge whether it is the way forward. It is early. They're still getting

to know each other. At the end of the day isn't it just whether Andy's

comfortable. He is not going to be comfortable losing week in, week

out. I think it will play itself out. I think Amelie Mauresmo has

done an excellent job coaching other people. There is no reason to

suggest she can't do a good job coaching Murray. It would be unfair

to fire her. I think it would be right to say there was nothing she

could do. I was amazed he got rid of Lendl. Could its be possible. Did he

get rid of Lendl? I don't know what happened. I think you did. I think

Ivan said I want to do 18 weeks and Andy said that is not enough. He

wanted somebody that would get up in the box and be more rah-rah. If Andy

Murray rang Lendl tomorrow and said, I need you back, do you think he

would say yes? Well, when I saw the quote, why Ivan claimed he wasn't

coaching Andy, he said he wanted to concentrate more on his seen yors

champions tennis. So I know that is a lie! I wouldn't put it past the

two of them that it would be still, I think it still would be possible

and possibly profitable for both of them. But I would also feel like, I

don't know why after winning, I have got to say the defending champion

not to have Ivan back. Almost from a superstitious stand point you would

keep the team. But I would give Amelie more of a chance. Lurking in

the background. To be continued. Now what was happening on No 1 Court.

It sounds like a football match, because it is Serbia against Croatia

and in the first set it was 1-0 to Serbia and emphatically. But

Croatia, no easy games, fought their way back, much to Mr Becker's

discontent. Here we are at set point in the second set. 1-1. So this was

a heavy weight clash. With a few Croatian supporters in the crowd and

here we are in the third set tie-break.

COMMENTATOR: Scrabbling around like a mad man trying to get there, Novak

Djokovic. He is OK. He is trying to keep his composure, but he is really

struggling to do so. ANDREW COTTER: Doing well to put

that game behind him. Djokovic suddenly looks the

stronger. is very, very uncertain. It is like

he is playing on ice. He just can't get a firm footing.

All his efforts in vain. And Cilic is lifting himself for this

tie-break. Cilic, six foot five, very agile, a difficult man to

pass. And in addition to that, managed a great drop volley. No one

quite has the staring eyes of Djokovic when he is putting in the

effort. Extraordinary. He has done that a few times, the

big first serve well landed, and then can't finish it off.

Still an amazing statistic, Djokovic would have nearly doubled the

unforced error is. Vat is the way to place a serve --

that is the way. What would Cilic give the two mighty first serves

now? Wonderfully finished off, because

the return of Djokovic was something special to even get to that.

He has it! Cilic celebrates, and if Djokovic is going to come back, he

has to do it by the long hard road, five sets. It was at that point but

the scoreboard flashed up that Murray had lost. Djokovic clearly

thought, I am not going the way of Andy Murray and Rafa Nadal. He won

the fourth set emphatically, and the fifth set even more emphatically.

Here is match point. And that roar that we have become used to over the

last two or three years when Djokovic twins.

So, Peter, what do you make of Djokovic today? You have been in

this situation before where you are playing against a guy when you have

won all nine times you have to play before, and you know you have to

play one of your rivals in the next round. I think that is how Djokovic

was. In sets two and three, Djokovic was making all kinds of unforced

error is, off his backhand, which is normally rock-solid. So he goes down

two sets to one, and in the fourth set, he just found it. By the way, I

am not losing today, you know that, I know that. Is there an element of

Cilic, as well, thinking I am two sets to one up, but I have never

beaten this guy anyway. Well, he has had Goran Ivanisevic to help him to

believe that he can do it, he is more aggressive, so there is reason

to believe that stage. But you know that the great players will flip a

switch at that stage. That was what was so disappointing about Murray

was that he didn't do that today against Dimitrov. I was watching

from a monitor, and I was thinking, this total carnage is about a

happen, because Nadal had lost yesterday, Murray had lost, Federer

was down. Whyte we had the headlines written, the day that tennis

changed. But it didn't. There was the possibility for all of the big

guys to be out, quite frightening for us tennis aficionados.

You could tell that both players, when the heavy-hearted sort of side,

when everybody on number one court saw that Murray had lost, both

Djokovic and Cilic looked at the scoreboard, and Djokovic must've

thought, I don't want to be added to that list. Was that it two set to

one? Djokovic was all over the place, slipping, and that is his

game, chasing down balls and being quick around the court. And he said,

I want new shoes, Boris, bring me new shoes, and he put them on

sometime in the fourth set, and suddenly, he was standing up, he

didn't slip, and when he was totally calm. Serena, I got this. Having

spoken about the influence that Mauresmo has had an Andy, what

influence has Boris had on him? Boris was struggling with his hip,

he ended up having surgery, and then he couldn't get to Miami which was

when Novak was finally getting it together, and you wondered if they

were going to keep this going, and then finally Boris was at Rome when

he won in event, and they decided to stay together. And now you finally

feel like he believes he can win it with just Boris,. Let's move on to

the Swiss match, after the trauma of their football match last night, the

one consoling thought was that they were guaranteed to have at least one

winner, because in opposition were the Swiss number one, and the Swiss

number two, Stan Wawrinka and Roger Federer. Of course, Federer is not

the Swiss number one. So, here they are, and in the first

set, it was Stan who struck first. So as we move on, he we are in the

second set. Federer reading it right, 126 miles

an hour, but just couldn't deal with it.

JOHN McENROE: The record for Federer coming into this, much better than

Wawrinka's. Wawrinka simply inspired.

Wawrinka's right in front of us, and he we doesn't look great. But his

expression very rarely changes. But he has been given a gift there.

He is not happy at all with that. That really would have put the

pressure on Wawrinka. Federer giving a good look. I don't

think he is going to challenge. If you find an angle like that and he

ticked at 129 miles an hour, you had better believe it is going to be an

ace. Only the fourth first -- for Stan in the match. This would be

huge for Wawrinka to win this tie-break and go up two sets to

love. He should have moved in and taken

the return of the air, but he didn't. He hit that too hard from

when he was. So, Federer a mini-break up again.

Oh, gorgeous, even for someone of Federer's abilities. To produce

that, amazing. Absolutely. Just about got his feet out of the

way. Three set points for Federer. Not enough on the return. I have

heard he is feeling sick to his stomach. This would be a sickening

feeling, if he doesn't win this set. One set point saved, a couple

more to go. No, it has just gone wide. He is

going to challenge. It did have a feeling of being out. At worst, it

would be the replay of the point. Wawrinka will not lose the set on

this. And it is out, so it doesn't matter. Third set point now, with

Federer serving. APPLAUSE

UMPIRE: Game, second set, Federer. Look at those faces.

UMPIRE: One set all. JOHN INVERDALE: Two of the big four

had gone, and Djokovic had been a bit shaky, but here is the last

member of the quartet determined he was going to get through to the

semifinals. But don't forget, Wawrinka is a Grand Slam champion.

He is playing with more energy, that is clear. He is becoming more

dangerous off the ground again. That is why he won that first set. Almost

the second. That net loves Federer almost as

much as the crowd do. That is bad luck for Wawrinka.

That little bark from Federer, Gene himself up for one last effort.

And there is another one he could taste. That is his bread and butter,

and he sends it wide. Oh, well played, Wawrinka! You can

see how much it took out of Wawrinka, that last rally. He is

playing with a lot of skill. He looks a little wobbly on his feet.

I don't believe that. Stan found a reserve that we didn't know he would

be able to come up with to give himself a chance to get back on

serve here. Break point. Well, he posed the question,

Wawrinka, and Federer had the answer.

No. I thought he was going to make it. So did he.

Well, he is coming up with some heroic shots. That was a case where

he went for it. Seems like he should do that pretty much all the time.

That was a great return to stave off match point again.

One more move forward does the trick.

To goad! That hasn't done him a whole lot of good, but isn't he

showing some wonderful plot here? Absolute respect for what we are

seeing from Wawrinka. That is some big-time shot -making.

After all he has achieved in this game, that was a little bit

disappointing. Fourth chance. The crowd don't know what to think.

Most of them want Federer to win this, but they love the drama that

is going on right now. 124 miles an hour. And here is match

point number five. UMPIRE: Game, set and match,

Federer. Three sets to one, 3-6, seven - six, 6-4, 6-4.

JOHN INVERDALE: Well, Federer had a 13-2 lead before that match, and now

it is 14-2. Was he worried at all? Yes, I think he was worried about

one setting. Unfortunately for Wawrinka he was playing three days

in a row, he was feeling something, and I don't know what it was,

whether it was food poisoning or nervous or anger at playing three

days in a row, he called for a Dr after the first set. And his serve

went from 132 about 110. That took the pressure off Federer. Talking

about the mix on the schedule. Djokovic has been vocal in the last

48 hours saying that he thinks that they should play on the middle

Sunday to avoid the situation is that have happened. Some players in

the women's quarterfinals were very, very tired. What do you

think? I haven't thought about it. I absolutely think they should do

that. Play? Absolutely. Maybe make it a charitable thing, let people

in, it would be an real. The argument is that the nature of the

courts is that the day gives the court to Mac time to relax. -- time

to relax. They have done a lot of positive things over the years,

making this an even greater event, but I think it is time now that we

make it 14-day event in the event that these issues occur. Let's talk

about Federer. 32, still in there. I think 33-year-old got the semifinal

in 1992. He didn't do too well in the semis, though. I didn't see the

first set, so I don't know how much Stan dropped off, but Roger was

looking good in the third and fourth. He certainly came out and

looked fresh and sharp, despite having to play two days in a row. I

still think it could affect him if he had had to play four matches, the

fourth being, I am looking ahead, you say Djokovic, we said

differently. Down the road, that could hurt him. It didn't seem to

bother him today, but that is because Stan got off so much. But he

has to get past granite chin the semifinals now, who earlier on beat

Kyrgios. -- get past Raonic. I'm sure some people will say that this

was like reverting to the dark days of grass court tennis because

Raonic's serve is almost an defendable. It works out well for

him because he does get a lot of balls back and block them. And

Raonic, unlike some of the other guys, Murray, Djokovic, who don't

come in as much, it may well benefit him to come in. Ivanisevic, John

Isner, Pete Sampras, the great service. And Ivo Karlovic. You had

better be ready to play a couple of tie-breakers when you play this guy.

And Boris, thank you for the hospitality last night. Great

chicken. I forgot. I lost my manners. Did you watch the USA

football game and Boris's? I did. The USA were tremendous, won't

they? They were, but they should have won. They have to win those

games. Boris, when he was young, Germany didn't have a lot of history

in tennis. He turned that around and won all the majors. Tim Howard maybe

a coach Andy Murray. That is left-field, very left-field. There

are two other matches we have to address today, because two of the

women's quarterfinals were held over because of the weather. Canada day

may have come and gone, but Bouchard ensured the celebration would go on

after she became the first lady from the land of maple leaf to get a spot

in the semi finals at Wimbledon. It was after a straight sets win over

anning league Kerber. -- Angelique Kerber. It took Bouchard less than

an hour to kick Angelique to the Kerber! Kerber looked a shadow of

the player who put paid to Maria Sharapova's movement. Bouchard said

she wants to be known as Jeannie and will be wishing it is third time

lucky in a Grand Slam semi. Eugenie Bouchard is through to her third

semi final of the year. I was trying to stay in the moment and not think

ahead. To try and stay mentally in the moment. A few bad errors, but I

played some good shots. I'm excited to be in the semis and I want to go

one step further for sure. Simona Halep's face is becoming more

familiar. Reaching the French Open final can do that. But a Wimbledon

triumph will raise the stakes. For many it is, Simona who? She made

light work of Pereira in round one. She quickly found her feet on grass.

It is always difficult to play here, because it is grass and you never

know what can happen on court. What almost happened in round two was a

shock defeat, before she won in three sets. A magical moment for the

fan of the Harry Potter novels. I received the books from my coach. I

was improving with my English. I speak more with my coach, because he

Isabel January. I am not happy with my English, but I want to believe I

can speak better and better. She cast a spell on her next two

opponents and today simply swept aside last year's runner up, Sabine

Lisicki of Germany. The Romanian sporting Hall of Fame is a club of

three. Nadia Komenech and Georgie Hagi. The people are amazing and

they Iraqise me and -- Hagi. The people are amazing and

recognise me and always Hagi. The people are amazing and

congratulations. It is nice, but I feel a bit of pressure. It is not

easy to manage. But I have to enjoy this moment, because it is the best

in my life. If Halep wins the singles title there will be no more

Simona who and instead widespread acclaim. So it means at that

slightly unimpressive skyline, we have got this line up tomorrow.

Thoughts Peter? The second match, Bouchard and Halep two rising stars.

Halep is a talented player and appears to have that champion's

mentality. She has won seven tournaments in 18 months. I guess

she is the favourite. Kvitova, it would be nice if she came back and

played the tennis she can. She was a bit overwhelmed when she won

Wimbledon. It has taken her a while. But she is knocking on the door

again. I have got to find the tape, because before the event I picked

Bouchard to win this. So I mean not that that is major stretch, because

she has come a long way. But I thought Serena would do better and

she has stepped up and Halep is like a, I don't want to say a poor

woman's, but Justine Henin. She is a great ball striker, great athlete.

So that should be interesting. So a Bouchard Kvitova final.

Halep/Kvitova I think. The semi finals of men on Friday and will

look like that. How doo you see those? Well I did

make Novak to win this. So I will stick with him. I think Grigor is

finding some great tennis. It should be an entertaining tennis. Roger

Federer, I haven't picked him or didn't think he was going to win

another slam. But I did he would get into a systemy or a final. -- semi

or a final. Because it favours his type of return, I'm going to go with

Roger Federer over Milos Raonic. Sounds sensible. There is not a lot

to add. Dimitrov perhaps could you know could do it, if Novak plays the

way he did today. I don't see that happening though. It is probably,

Raonic could serve anybody off. The two guys I would pick were Dimitrov

and Raonic to step up a and do it. It is nice to see them getting

there. This is the potential changing of guard. It could be. But

I don't think it will happen quite yet. But both have an excellent

chance. Final word about Andy Murray, because the rain is -- reign

is over, I am sure the newspapers will be full of inquests and

postmortems, inrational terms, what do we say about his performance here

and in France and what has happened in the last 11 months. Andy Murray's

effort in France is as good or as better as his effort here. He will

drop to 10 or 11 in the world, but I think you will see him back in the

top four. He looked great in pa Ras, until he -- Paris until he lost to

Rafael Nadal and he looked great the first week here. It is difficult to

understand what happened today. But the guy's, the guy is a serial

winner. He is going to figure it out I'm sure. Thank you very much. It is

great to have you here. Ladies semi finals tomorrow. We are on air on

BBC1 from half past 12 and irrespective of what happened on

Centre Court today, Andy Murray remains Great Britain's greatest

ever tennis player. Just not today. # I can take so much # Till I have

had enough # # Because I'm only human and I feel when I fall down #

I'm only human # And I crash and I break down # Words in my head, I