LONDON—The weather took center stage again at the AEGON Championships on Saturday, this time in the form of the gusting winds which have kept the rain-clouds blowing past overhead but proved something of a bugbear for the players today. It’s hard to play your best tennis when a ball you frame forwards blows back over your head and lands behind you, as happened to Marin Cilic, or when you toss the ball to serve, only for the wind to grab it and yank it out of reach, as happened to David Nalbandian. All four players contesting the Queen’s semifinals today found themselves frequently doubled over and lunging frantically for a ball which erratically swerved mid-trajectory after they had already set their feet for the shot. Experience, patience and level-headedness counted for everything as Marin Cilic beat Sam Querrey and David Nalbandian defeated Grigor Dimitrov to set up an appetizing final.
Querrey and Cilic play so similarly, both six-foot-six with games built around big serves and big forehands, that the first semifinal between them was a bit like watching Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots going at it. Cilic’s backhand is superior, but Querrey is better at hitting aggressively and even with a certain creativity when forced on the run. With memories of their five-set encounter at Wimbledon in 2009 — their only previous meeting to date — fresh in both their minds, it was clear that any break of serve would more or less decide a set. Querrey started better as Cilic struggled to keep the ball in the court, earning no less than nine break points as Cilic served for 1-1 and seeing every one of them go by the wayside, partly as the result of Cilic’s big serving, but also on at least three occasions because the American could not make very possible returns on second serves. Having used up every one of his nine lives, Cilic loosened up and began to land big returns and dominate with his forehand, breaking to love and leading the first set 6-3.
When Cilic can land his big first serve and construct an aggressive point, flowing into an approach shot and then into net, his fluency as a player is remarkable and in stark contrast to his defense. Although Querrey broke Cilic’s serve twice in the second set before taking it 6-3, the American never flowed in the same way and his point construction was often sadly lacking; if he couldn’t win the point with the second shot after the serve, he often looked out of ideas and couldn’t penetrate with the return in the way that Cilic managed to. Serving at 0-1 in the third set, Querrey was running out wide to the forehand when he slipped and fell, lying beached for several seconds before he got up and served a double fault to be broken. He recouped that break after Cilic’s errors at 4-2, but double-faulted again and Cilic served out the match 6-3 in the third.
The more eagerly-anticipated second semifinal seemed set up to be a classic; David Nalbandian, the grizzled veteran looking for his first grass-court final since Wimbledon in 2002 and the youngster finally breaking through — or, as Grigor Dimitrov was introduced to the Centre Court crowd, the "rising star." Unfortunately the wind was at its worst during the first set, which saw breaks and re-breaks and plenty of unforced errors, but throughout the match there were glimpses of the tennis these two have played this week, which has been sensational. Dimitrov’s tennis is so lyrical that when it works, it makes me want to sit down and dash off a Spenserian ode dripping with honey in praise of it. Nalbandian‘s, on the other hand, just makes me want to stand up and cheer. The flip side of Dimitrov’s mellifluous game is that there’s a lot that can go wrong with it, and with the ball veering and changing direction mid-rally, Nalbandian’s more compact strokes stood up better to the challenges of the day. He also looked fit and fully recovered from his marathon day yesterday and, in his return of serve, had the one weapon which never failed to win him the point when he connected with it sweetly, Dimitrov repeatedly finding himself rocked back on his heels immediately after serving. A flurry of initial breaks gave way to a steady, if never insurmountable lead for Nalbandian and although the crowd’s polite enthusiasm for Dimitrov made it clear that he was their sentimental favorite, the Bulgarian’s frustration grew visibly every time Nalbandian drew him into a backhand slice exchange that inevitably ended in the Argentine’s favor. Dimitrov teared up after winning his quarterfinal yesterday; one could imagine that he wanted to do so again, and not just because of the wind, as his first semifinal ended without him being able to compete as he would have dreamed of doing under calmer conditions. Run all over the court by Nalbandian’s crafty play, Dimitrov’s run ended as Nalbandian served out a 6-4, 6-4 victory.
The last time Cilic and Nalbandian played each other, it was in the raucous atmosphere of a Davis Cup tie in Argentina, where Cilic got his first win over Nalbandian in five attempts. The ambience tomorrow will be rather different, if the reserved yet appreciative crowd today are anything to go by. Although a lone voice would pipe up every so often with a "come on, Sam!" or "come on, Dimitrov!", the matches today were played in silence broken only by the sounds of the tennis itself and respectful applause. Some people might see this as lack of appreciation, but I don’t agree; the west London hush creates an atmosphere in which only the players themselves shine. Cilic and Nalbandian have both shone this week; let’s hope they can continue to do so tomorrow.
Hannah Wilks is a frequent contributor to TENNIS.com.