Bryans and partners motor into mixed semi-finals

Friday marked a fantastic day for British tennis as Andy Murray and Jonathan Marray both booked their places in Sunday’s finals. 31-year old Marray became the first Brit since Bobby Wilson and Mike Davies in 1960 to reach the final of the men’s doubles at Wimbledon, while Andy Murray ended an even longer wait to become the first British finalist in the men’s singles for 74 years.

Attentions turned to the only remaining Brit left in the Mixed Doubles draw, as Colin Fleming, partnered with Taiwanese Su-Wei Hsieh looked to book a semi-final place. The wait for a British Mixed Doubles finalist is thankfully considerably less than the records that both Murray and Marray ended today as Andy’s brother Jamie won the title with Jelena Jankovic back in 2007.

However, the prospect of having three Brits competing in three finals on Sunday were dashed as Fleming and Su-Wei crashed out to third seeds Nenad Zimonjic and Katerina Srebotnik. In a tightly contested first set, the former French Open champions prevailed, clinching the tie-break 7-3 before dominating the second to seal a 7-6, 6-3 victory in 1 hour 18 minutes.

Earlier in the day on Court 18, veteran Leander Paes and Russia’s Elena Vesnina defeated Paul Hanley and Alla Kudryavtseva 6-2, 6-2 in just 57 minutes. The fourth seeds are yet to drop a set at The Championships and looked in convincing form against their unseeded opponents as they failed to concede a single unforced error or double fault. Paes, who recently turned 39 is looking for his fourth Mixed Doubles title at Wimbledon, but will have to overcome a potential mouth watering semi-final contest against the top seeded American pairing of Bob Bryan and Leizel Huber.

Both Bryan and Huber suffered semi-final defeats in their respective doubles matches earlier in the day, but managed to make amends with a straight sets triumph over Daniel Nestor and Julia Goerges. The Canadian-German duo’s first tournament as partners came to an abrupt end as they were outclassed by the experienced pairing of Huber and Bryan who are looking to share their third Grand Slam title together. The top seeds snatched the opening set 7-5. However, the second was a mere formality as they completed the 6-1 rout in just 23 minutes.

There is some exhilarating tennis in store on Saturday as the top four seeds battle it out in the semi-finals. Second up on No.1 Court is Zimonjic/Srebotnik (3) vs M.Bryan/Raymond (2) followed B.Bryan/Huber (1) vs Paes/Vesnina (4).