Expert
In their 52nd meeting, Novak Djokovic will take on Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon semi-finals. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from around 1:30am (AEST).
It’s one of the most famous rivalries on the ATP tour, but this is almost a story of redemption for the Djoker.
He is a former world No.1, but has struggled for form over the last year and a half. Injuries and form have derailed his career and while he isn’t back at the top of his game, the world No.12 made the quarter-finals at the French Open and now finds himself in the semi-final at Wimbledon.
The key to this matchup as Djokovic takes on the current world No.1 will be in the baseline groundstrokes. Whoever can get further inside the baseline and strike the ball to the corners will take the win.
The problem is, both of these players are players who enjoy playing the defensive route, which generally doesn’t suit grass, no matter how good either of them have been on the surface previously.
The courts are playing right into Nadal’s hands this year as well. He didn’t drop a set across the first four rounds, with the warmer than usual weather allowing the ball to have more bounce on it and for Nadal to play from deeper in the court.
It was his saving grace when he took on the big-serving, all-powerful Argentinian Juan Martin Del Potro in the quarter-final, coming away with a five-set win in nearly five hours.
While the Spaniard made it out of that match in the end, the fatigue he will be feeling out of it is going to set him back against a player like Djokovic, who is happy to run all day.
You feel if Nadal is going to win, he has to do it quickly, especially coming off such a long and taxing clay court season.
Djokovic, on the otherr hand, has only dropped two sets across the entire tournament – to Kyle Edmund in the third round and Kei Nishikori in the quarter-finals.
His serve is firing, and it’s making it hard for his opponents to get into matches.
Prediction
I’ll take Nadal, but with absolutely no confidence. The courts are playing into his hands and so I expect him to get the job done.
Nadal in four.
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