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It’s the experience of Tomas Berdych taking on the youthful enthusiasm of 32nd seed Lucas Pouille in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon. Join The Roar for live scores from around 12 midnight (AEST).
10th seed Berdych, at 30 years of age, is one of the most experienced players on the circuit, but yet has never been able to crack a grand slam with his best performance coming as runner-up at Wimbledon in 2010.
It is this experience, though, that has allowed him to get through to the quarter-finals this year, with many of his matches being closer than he would have liked.
After only playing the one tournament between his quarter-final exit to Novak Djokovic at the French Open – where he lost in the first round against Marcos Baghdatis – he has only had one straight sets match, which came against Benjamin Becker in the second round.
Around that, he has had four set wins against Ivan Dodig and Alexandr Zverev before dropping the first set against Jiri Vesely in the fourth round only to come back with a pair of tiebreakers involved in the match to win in the fifth set.
Pouille, the 32nd seed, had displayed some very good form throughout the first three rounds, knocking over the likes of Juan Martin Del Potro and Donald Young, who he defeated in straight sets, before keeping his cool to take a five-set win over Australian Bernard Tomic.
Despite that, he allowed Tomic to dictate the momentum and rhythm of the game for the most part, which was played at a cracking pace. He had to come from behind in the final set to win 10-8, but the way he allowed the Australian to dominate the game suggests there won’t be much different here against the more experienced and superior Berdych.
The pair have never played before and the winner will take on either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Andy Murray in the semi-final.
Prediction
The experience of Berdych should get him over the line here. Pouille never really looked in a great rhythm against Tomic, and he should slowly get worked over here.
Berdych in four sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this match from around 12am (AEST) or following the completion of Sam Querrey vs Milos Raonic on the No.1 court and don’t forget to add your own comments below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde