Saturday 7th july

And here we go again.  Another Wimbledon, another semi-final, another nail-biting session, as yet again all British hopes are on edge.  1936 was the last time a British man won Wimbledon though I am not sure when we last got a finalist, certainly not in my memory; we always seem to fall at the penultimate hurdle.  And this year Andy was playing really poorly before this tournament, so there was not quite that absurd degree of optimism around him.  But slowly and surely he has progressed and as I write he is playing the number 5 seed, Tsonga.  Murray is two sets up, which in a funny way is more worrying than the other way round.  And if not this year then when will it ever be; Nadal is out, and Djokavic has been beaten by a rejuvenated Federer.  If Andy doesn’t win it this year with only one of the super three to beat then one suspects he never will.  I can hardly bear to watch.  And I didn’t for a while.  Tsonga came back really strong and Murray had to wait for the fourth set to bring the match to a conclusion.

So now we will all have to live through the most trying afternoon on Sunday.  Roger Federer is playing for his seventh Wimbledon singles title, so he wants it just as much.  It really could go either way.  One suspects it will be incredibly close, but we will just have to wait and see.  For now, we can rejoice in at last getting to a final.