Wimbledon preview – Andy Murray v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Andy Murray’s form leading into Wimbledon offered little for the British public to get excited about, but since the Scot arrived at the All England Club last week, he’s delivered a consistently high standard of tennis.
It’s a standard that suggests that maybe, just maybe, the British No. 1 is a genuine title contender in SW19 this year.
Murray arrives in his quarter-final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as the only player remaining in the draw who is yet to drop a set for the tournament, an impressive achievement considering his last two opponents have been former top-10 player Gilles Simon (who was admittedly returning from injury) and most recently Queen’s Club champion Sam Querrey.
It’s a campaign that has, despite being played out in broad daylight, in some ways proceeded by stealth in a country in the grip of World Cup fever, a disease that was brutally cured by Germany in Sunday’s knock-out match.
With hopes of England breaking a World Cup title drought that has lasted since 1966 extinguished, attention can now turn to whether Murray is capable of bringing to an end a British men’s Grand Slam title drought that so far has lasted 30 years longer than English football fans have had to wait.
The next step for the fourth seed is improving on what is already a 2-1 career winning record against Tsonga in their first meeting on grass, at a tournament where Murray was last year a semi-finalist and where the Frenchman has for the first time this year progressed beyond the fourth round.
While Murray sailed through the first week at Wimbledon, and continued that form on Monday, Tsonga has been tested in most of his opening matches, most notably by the unseeded Alexandr Dolgopolov in the second round where the 10th seed prevailed 10-8 in the fifth set.
And while Tsonga emerged from his four-set fourth-round victory against 32nd seed Julien Benneteau saying “I didn't play really well”, Murray can afford to be much happier with his performance, even if against Querrey his serve wasn’t up to the standard of his previous three matches.
“I served great the first three matches. Didn't serve so well today,” Murray said after his fourth-round match. “I was good from the back of the court. Didn't make as many mistakes. A few long rallies and had to defend well today. And I did.”
In Tsonga, Murray will face another powerful server, and a player who, in contrast to his own counterpunching style, will look to play the aggressor with his heavy ground strokes.
Murray, on what we’ve seen so far, should be up to the task of defending against Tsonga’s big weapons and keep British hopes of a home-grown Wimbledon champion alive for at least another round.
Prediction: Murray to reach the semi-finals for the second year running.
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