3 Things to Know: July 7

1

It looked for all the world like we’d have our first Grand Slam semifinal without Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic since the 2004 French Open. (You read that right.) Marin Cilic, Federer’s opponent on Tuesday, displayed the same kind of all-court aggressiveness and serving impenetrability that led to his straight-sets win over Federer in the 2014 U.S. Open semis. For the first two-and-a-half sets, at least. Once Federer was finally able to hit back, he began to claw his way back from a massive deficit and, eventually, reached the familiar final four at the All England Club. En route to his 10th career comeback from two sets down, Federer saved three match points.

2

Centre Court was the stage for two five-setters yesterday, though neither contest appeared to be going the distance early on. Like Cilic, Andy Murray took a two-set lead in his quarterfinal, against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Unlike Cilic, Murray went on to win—but it wasn’t easy. Tsonga, who beat Federer from two sets down at Wimbledon in 2011, raised his level of play after a desultory second set, but it was Murray who ended up finishing in style, winning 7-6, 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 6-1.

3

Milos Raonic and Tomas Berdych, two of the game’s biggest servers, rounded out the semifinalists on the men’s side. Had Cilic and Tsonga advanced, it would have been hard to escape the narrative that the tournament had traveled back in time, to the mid-90s, when massive servers ruled The Championships. We still may end up thinking that, should Raonic or Berdych ultimately prevail, but on Tuesday, Murray and Federer showed off the kind of baseline wizardry that has defined Wimbledon since Federer’s first title in 2003.