Federer reaches 21st straight Grand Slam semi; Haas, Roddick, Murray also gain Wimbledon semis

Wimbledon semis set: Federer-Haas, Murray-Roddick

WIMBLEDON, England — Roger Federer neutralized Ivo Karlovic’s huge serves Wednesday to reach the Wimbledon semifinals and move a step closer to a record 15th Grand Slam championship. Two-time finalist Andy Roddick, Andy Murray and Tommy Haas completed the final four.

In a match featuring short points and few rallies, Federer conjured up a few great returns to break the 6-foot-10 Croatian twice and secure a 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (3) victory on another sunbaked day at the All England Club.

Federer, closing in on his sixth Wimbledon title, reached his 21st consecutive semifinal at a Grand Slam tournament and extended his winning streak to 17 matches with another vintage performance on his favorite Centre Court.

“I love the record I have of reaching so many semifinals in Grand Slams in a row — 21 is quite a number,” Federer said. “It shows how consistent I’ve been.”

It was Federer’s ninth win in 10 matches against Karlovic, who was playing in his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Federer’s next opponent will be Germany’s Haas, who upset fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic 7-5, 7-6 (6), 4-6, 6-3 to advance to his first Wimbledon semifinal. The 31-year-old Haas was the oldest player in the quarters, while the 22-year-old Djokovic was the youngest.

The third-seeded Murray swept Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 to reach his first Wimbledon semifinal and keep up his bid to become the first British player to win the men’s title since Fred Perry in 1936.

Murray will face the sixth-seeded Roddick, who served 43 aces and outlasted 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-7 (10), 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-4 in the day’s most competitive match. Hewitt battled back from two sets to one down, before Roddick broke for 5-4 in the fifth and then served out the match — which ended after 3 hours, 50 minutes when the Australian popped up a forehand half-volley past the baseline.

“It’s a testament to the type of player he is that he kept going and made it such a fight,” said the 26-year-old Roddick, who lost to Federer in the 2004 and ‘05 Wimbledon finals. “I think there’s a lot of respect there. We used to get into it a little bit when we were younger, but I think we definitely earned each other’s respect. Now we’re just a couple of old married dudes, so maybe we’ve grown up a little bit.”

Hewitt, who had 21 aces himself, said he did all that he could to deal with Roddick’s rocket serves.

“You know you’re going to get aced a lot,” he said. “I knew that going into the match. You’re going to get some break points and you’re going to see them go pretty quickly as well. It was a matter of trying to hang in there as much as possible and make him play that extra shot. I was nearly able to do it.”

Murray broke Ferrero five times, served 18 aces and lost serve only once. Murray had 49 winners, compared to 20 for the Spaniard, a former No. 1 and only third wild card to reach the Wimbledon quarters.

It was a dominant performance by Murray, the first Briton to reach the semifinals since Tim Henman did it for the fourth time in 2002.

“I feel confident because I’ve won a lot of matches on the grass,” Murray said. “But every day, when I get up to play the matches, I know that I’m going to have to perform very well, and that gets the nerves and the adrenaline going and makes me play better.”

Karlovic served 23 aces to raise his tournament total to 160, but it was Federer who never faced a break point. The second-ranked Swiss star won 74 of 85 points on serve and was taken to deuce only once, in the sixth game of the third set. Federer got out of that jam with a 129 mph service winner and a 128 mph ace.

“It’s difficult because there’s not really any baseline rallies on his serve or on my serve,” Federer said. “You expect a tough scoreline all the time. It’s not easy to break him. I’m very happy to break him twice and win the match.”

The statistics told the story: Federer had 39 winners and only seven unforced errors, to 29 winners (almost all on serve) and 17 errors for Karlovic.

Federer grabbed the upper hand early when he broke Karlovic in the fourth game of the match with flashes of brilliance.

He got to break point with a reflex backhand return winner off a 130 mph serve and then ripped a forehand return winner off a 122 mph serve, pumping his fist and shouting, “Come on!”

It was the first time Karlovic had been broken during the tournament after winning 80 consecutive service games.

“He returned unbelievable few shots and I could not really react on it,” said Karlovic, who added that he was bothered by the sun in his eyes before putting on sunglasses for the rest of the match.

The first extended rally of the match — and one of only a handful during the entire contest — didn’t take place until the fourth game of the second set, a 15-stroke point that ended with a Federer forehand winner 35 minutes into the match.

The second set turned Federer’s way when he broke Karlovic in the 11th game with four straight winners: an overhead, a forehand passing shot down the line, a reflex backhand return off a 126 mph serve and a passing shot that glanced off Karlovic’s racket frame.

The third set ended with the 13th tiebreaker the two men have played against each other in 25 sets of tennis. Karlovic’s limitations were exposed as he made several glaring errors, missing badly on what should have been easy putaways. Federer finished him off with an inside-out forehand winner on the first match point.

The 24th-seeded Haas saved three straight set points against Djokovic after going down 6-3 in the second-set tiebreaker. He broke in the fourth game of the fourth set and sealed the win when Djokovic netted a forehand return on the first match point.

The result wasn’t a complete surprise: Haas beat Djokovic in the grass-court final at Halle, Germany, last month.

Haas led Federer two sets to love in the fourth round of the French Open, only to lose in five. He said he hopes to make amends on Friday.

“That would be nice,” he said. “I’ll give it my best shot. There’s not much he (Federer) can’t do. He’s obviously the favorite to win the title. I’m going to go out there and try to annoy him a little bit and see what happens.”