Djokovic feeling fit and fresh for Wimbledon semis
LONDON – One semifinalist is rebounding from a taxing five-set comeback.
Another was so overwhelmed to reach the final four, he sat on the court and wept.
One more has a knee that’s being kept in action through the miracles of ice baths, athletic tape and painkillers.
And then there’s Novak Djokovic.
Of the four men preparing for today’s semifinals at Wimbledon, nobody has had skated through a less-taxing road than the top-ranked and top-seeded Serb, who remains the odds-on favorite to win his seventh Grand Slam title.
“Coming into the semifinals, I feel physically fresh,” said Djokovic, who has won all 15 sets he’s played and averaged less than two hours per match, the lowest total of any of the final four.
“And I’m ready. Plenty of motivation to win every match that I play here.”
Djokovic will play eighth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro, who also hasn’t dropped a set in his first five matches at Wimbledon, but is the opposite of “fresh” – dealing with the effects of hyperextending his left knee twice: First in a match last Saturday, then again in his quarterfinal victory over David Ferrer.
The other men’s semifinal pits No. 24 Jerzy Janowicz, a 22-year-old from Poland who is making his deepest run at a Grand Slam, against No. 2 Andy Murray, who came back from two sets down to beat Fernando Verdasco and advance to his fifth straight Wimbledon semifinal.
Murray got himself into quite a bind in the Verdasco match, but slowed things down to make a meticulous comeback.