Tennis - What Brings the Day to Wimbledon

LONDON (AP) — The favorites and three debutants will face off in the semi-finals of Wimbledon this Friday (2:30 p.m. / SKY).

Tennis world number one Novak Djokovic does not want Canada’s Denis Shapovalov to stop in his title hunt. Also, Italian Matteo Berrettini faces Roger Federer’s Polish winner Hubert Herkaz.

Four semifinalists at a glance:

Novak Djokovic (Serbia)

The 34-year-old has already won Wimbledon five times, including the last two editions in 2018 and 2019. Djokovic is looking to catch up with a 20th Grand Slam title alongside Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for a third Grand Slam title. The four most important tournaments in this one win year. If Olympic gold and a win at the US Open were to follow, Djokovic would have scored a Golden Slam – so far only Steffi Graf has succeeded in 1988. During the tournament so far, Djokovic has been violent and is now in his tenth Wimbledon semi-final.

Denis Shapovalov (Canada)

The world number 12 has lost all six previous matches with Djokovic, but recently it was twice as close. The 22-year-old almost stumbled in the first round against the veteran Philipp Kollschreiber and then reached the third round without a fight. The left-hander then played a strong role and said before his first Grand Slam semi-final: “Anything is possible, the score on the scoreboard is 0-0.” Five years after Milos Raonic, a Canadian would be in the Wimbledon final again if they won.

Matteo Berrettini (Italian)

The 25-year-old wants to make sure Italy is represented in the Wimbledon final for the first time – hours before the footballers’ European final at Wembley Stadium. The world number ninth gets along very well on grass. In 2019 he won the tournament in Stuttgart, and a few weeks ago won the traditional tournament at the Queen’s Club in London. Berrettini reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the US Open in 2019. He is friends with Australian tennis player Ajla Tomljanovic.

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Hubert Herkaz (Poland)

The 24-year-old removed Russia’s Daniil Medvedev from second place in the world rankings on his way to his first Grand Slam semi-final ahead of Federer at Wimbledon. Hurkacz is currently ranked 18th in the world and has won the Miami Masters tournament this year. Against Berrettini, who, like him, measures an impressive 1.96m, he won and lost once. Eight years after Jerzy Janowicz’s semi-final loss, home fans are now excited for Harkaz – the men’s pole has never made it to a Grand Slam final.