Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Raonic ends Querrey's Wimbledon run in quarters

No. 6 seed Milos Raonic, playing at Indian
Wells in March, beat No. 28 Sam Querrey
6-4, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 today in the Wimbledon
quarterfinals. Photo by Paul Bauman 
   Sam Querrey's magic ran out today.
   Querrey, seeded 28th, lost to Milos Raonic, seeded sixth, 6-4, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 in a quarterfinal matchup of tall, powerful players at Wimbledon.
   Querrey, a 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) San Francisco native living in Santa Monica in the Los Angeles area, had rallied from two sets down in the first round, ended Novak Djokovic's Grand Slam winning streak at 30 matches in the third round and avoided a letdown to reach his first major quarterfinal.
    In Friday's semifinals beginning at 5 a.m. on ESPN, Raonic will meet No. 3 seed and seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, and No. 2 Andy Murray will play No. 10 Tomas Berdych.
   Federer, 34, saved three-match points, all on his serve, in a 6-7 (4), 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9), 6-3 victory over No. 9 Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion.
   Murray, who became the first British man in 77 years to win Wimbledon in 2013, outlasted No. 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 (10), 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 6-1.
   Berdych, the 2010 Wimbledon runner-up to Rafael Nadal, dispatched No. 32 Lucas Pouille of France 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-2.
   Federer is 9-2 against the 25-year-old Raonic, including a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory in the Wimbledon semifinals in 2014. Raonic, a 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) Canadian, won the last meeting 6-4, 6-4 in the Brisbane final on a hardcourt in January.
   Murray, 29, is 8-6 with a four-match winning streak against Berdych, a 30-year-old Czech. This will be their first meeting on grass.  
No. 3 seed and seven-time Wimbledon
champion Roger Federer rallied from two
sets down and saved three match points
to defeat No. 9 Marin Cilic. 2015 photo
by Paul Bauman
   Both Raonic and Murray won their first career title and went undefeated in the now-defunct SAP Open in San Jose, Calif. Raonic never lost a set in 13 matches in the SAP Open, winning the last three titles (2011-13). Murray won the 2006 crown at 18 and repeated in 2007.
   Berdych reached the quarterfinals of the 2009 SAP Open as the fifth seed in his only San Jose appearance. Federer never played in the tournament.
   Also today at Wimbledon, the Bryan twins' Grand Slam drought continued. No. 2 seeds and three-time Wimbledon champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan lost to No. 11 Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., 7-6 (2), 6-1, 7-6 (4).
   Klaasen and Ram, who teamed with Scott Lipsky to win the 2011 SAP Open doubles title, are 3-0 this year against the Bryans. The Bryans and Lipsky, 34, are former Stanford All-Americans.
   The last of the 38-year-old Bryans' record 16 major titles in men's doubles came in the 2014 U.S. Open.
   In women's doubles, No. 10 seeds Raquel Atawo (formerly Kops-Jones) of San Jose and Abigail Spears of Colorado Springs, Colo., defeated Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Kveta Peschke, 40, of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-2 to reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the second consecutive year.
   Atawo, a 33-year-old Fresno native and former Cal star, and Spears, 34, also advanced to the semifinals of the 2014 Australian Open.
   Atawo and Spears, seeing their first berth in a major final, will return to the court on Friday against either No. 1 seeds and defending champions Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Sania Mirza of India or No. 5 Timea Babos of Hungary and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan.
   Babos and Shvedova eliminated Johanna Konta of Great Britain and Maria Sanchez, who was born and raised in Modesto, Calif., 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 today in the third round.
   Meanwhile, Lipsky and Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia upset No. 5 seeds Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia and Yung-Jan Chan of Taiwan 6-4, 7-6 (5) to reach the mixed doubles quarterfinals.
   Lipsky won the 2011 French Open mixed doubles title with Casey Dellacqua of Australia.

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