London: Effervescent Roger Federer moved serenely into the Wimbledon semifinals a few weeks before his 36th birthday and then expressed his concern for two stricken rivals both of whom bowed out of the tournament, Wednesday.
Top seed Andy Murray struggled with a hip injury before losing to Sam Querrery while second seed Novak Djokovic retired while being a set and 0-2 down against Tomas Berdych.
Federer had no such problems in his majestic demolition of Canadian Milos Raonic 6-4, 6-2, 7-6(7-4). Federer, who skipped the French Open this year to give his body time to recover before the grass court season hoped Murray and Djokovic would not live to regret battling through the pain barrier.
“You wish them well right away as a rival to them and a friend,” Federer said. “You want them to be healthy again. Andy, I hope by playing he didn’t make things worse. It’s big for him to step out on court and give it a go, even though maybe knowing, like me last year, the chances are slim he was going to defend this title. I have a lot of respect for him doing that. I just hope he can recover quickly and get ready for America really,” added the Swiss.
Federer said he had learned to manage his body – citing last year’s French Open when he arrived at Roland Garros struggling with knee and back injuries and decided to pull out of the tournament before it began. It ended a run of 65 consecutive Grand Slam appearances.
“I was doing fitness with my fitness coach and after like 10 minutes, I looked at him and said, I don’t know what we’re doing in Paris seriously. We decided to skip the event,” he said.
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