Djokovic glides past Cilic into semi-finals

Defending champion Novak Djokovic will take on US Open victor Marin Cilic for the 13th time.

Until Gasquet dropped to his back at the baseline when French Open champion Wawrinka’s last backhand sailed long, it appeared this might be the first Wimbledon semifinals in 20 years involving men seeded 1-4. He would also have been the first top seed to lose before the quarter-finals since Pete Sampras in 2001.

Novak Djokovic with a ball girl during a match.

Djokovic is a career 12-0 versus Cilic. Wimbledon is the only Slam that schedules all 16 mens and womens fourth-round matches on the same day, and 15 were completed this time.

The only surprise came when Simon broke Federer – at love no less – to draw even at 5-5 in the second set. So that task is big on Wednesday.

Djokovic required two double faults from Anderson to generate enough momentum to break and the constant frustration he directed towards those working with him suggests it is symptomatic of a deeper issue. Had he been down to a better player than Anderson, that probably would have been it. After the scare, I don’t think Djokovic finds himself in that kind of trouble again. “I enjoyed the crowd out there”, said Vandeweghe, whose grandfather and uncle were National Basteball Association players and grandmother was a Miss America. This would be the best opportunity for me to try to play: “full on”.

“I’m not going to look further than Gilles Simon who has caused me difficulties in the past. He served well. I didn’t have too many looks there”, Anderson said. And while Murray, whose 2013 title was the first for a British man at Wimbledon in 77 years, will be trying for his 17th Grand Slam semifinal, Pospisil had never been past the third round at a major until now. He was asked if the one-set he played against Anderson could be used as a high intensity “warm-up”, similar to a training session the day before the quarterfinals.

Within no more than a five-minute window Anderson was pressing for the biggest championship upset in years and then vainly scrambling to stay in the tournament. Coming into this week, it was definitely my goal to progress further than I have at the slams. I know him very well. I was two sets down. Gasquet won the other meeting back in 2006 at the Paris Indoors.

The covers are out on the courts at Wimbledon as rain has interrupted the opening men’s quarterfinal matches during the first set. And unlike Wawrinka, he’s been to the semifinals at Wimbledon before. And he’s been serving great all week. And Murray is hoping to take advantage of any fatigue. Whether this means Pospisil is more worn out or more battle-hardened is yet to be seen.

“Reaction was always going to be important for me once the streak ended and the serve was broken”, he said.

ESPN and ESPN2 will have live concurrent coverage starting at 8am ET.

He now faces Marin Cilic of Croatia in the last eight.