Roger Federer speaks four languages fluently, but the word panic isn’t in his vocabulary. The 34-year-old seven-time Wimbledon champion erased a two-set deficit, fought off three match points, and won the decisive fifth set on Wimbledon’s Centre Court to defeat Marin Cilic and advance to the semifinals. The turning point of the match came in the fourth-set tiebreak, when Federer outlasted Cilic to win 11 points to nine. His best shot, though, came at 4–3 in the fifth set, when he smoked a forehand winner cross-court. You can watch it above.
Federer won the next point to break Cilic and then held serve to win 6–7, 4–6, 6–3, 7–6, 6–3. It was Federer’s ninth-ever comeback from two sets down. As FiveThirtyEight’s Carl Bialik notes, he’s now 9–32 when losing the first two sets in a five-set match.
Federer his missed much of this season with back and knee problems. He didn’t play in the French Open, the first time he’s missed the main draw of a grand slam since the 1999 U.S. Open.
With Novak Djokovic having lost to Sam Querrey in the third round, this will likely be Federer’s best chance to win his 18th major title. On Friday, he’ll face Canadian Milos Raonic, who he’s beaten nine out of 11 times, including at Wimbledon in 2014. If he makes it through that match, he’ll likely face Andy Murray in the final. Federer is 2–0 against Murray at Wimbledon, beating him in last year’s semifinals and in the 2012 final—the last time Federer won a grand slam. (Murray did beat Federer in the 2012 Olympics, which were played at the All England Club.) At the moment, Murray is the 8/11 favorite to win Wimbledon, while Federer is the second choice at 11/4.
