Wimbledon Preview - Nadal Vs Murray, Djokovic Vs Tsonga

The many Tennis spectacles over the past week-and-a-half, has culminated in a semifinal stage devoid of a six-time champion but not of entertainment and excitement.

First up on Centre court is surprise contestant, Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga against second seed Novak Djokovic.

Tsonga surprised the world in coming back from a 2-0 set deficit to defeat the 17-time grand slam champion Roger Federer, thereby booking his place, deservedly, in the semifinals. He will now face the world number two in Djokovic, who has been defeated only once this year when Federer turned on one of his greatest performances to beat him in the French Open semifinal a month back. You can put two and two together and predict a Tsonga victory here, but Tennis doesn't quite work like that.

Interestingly, Tsonga has a 5-2 head-to-head record in favour against Djokovic with all five of those contests coming consecutively. However, he hasn't faced Djokovic in this year's competition and the Serb has been a different animal since the turn of the year.

Djokovic is cautios, however, despite his impressive record this year. In the official website of Wimbledon, he said, He (Tsonga) is very dangerous. He had an amazing comeback against Federer, he served well and played well, and he's been playing great in the grass court season so far.

We are both baseliners so a lot will depend on our serves. I need to serve well because that's something that he's going to do. His game depends on that serve. If he starts missing first serves then I will have more chance in the rallies. But I expect a very, very even match.

After the first semi is settled, Andy Murray will take on Rafael Nadal in hope of reaching the final winning his first grand slam. It's the second time in a month that the Scot will face Nadal between himself and a place in the final. In fact, the Wimbledon semis last year was the same, as the Scot was defeated by Nadal who went on to beat Tomas Berdych in the finals to claim the title.

Dauntingly, Nadal will be determined not to make life easy for Djokovic, who will oust the Spaniard from the top of the world rankings if he wins against Tsonga, irrespective of how Nadal fares.

Nadal has an 11-4 head-to-head record in favour against the Scot. Both men will be nursing and braving injuries, Nadal having an ankle problem and Murray experience issues in his hip.

Murray told BBC Sport, I feel fine. I'm just looking forward to tomorrow now. I'll do all the right preparation and recovery stuff and try and play my best tomorrow.

On his chances against the defending champion, Murray was optimistic. I believe I can win against him, he said. I had chances last year. I was a break up in the third set, had break point on my serve in the second set - I think there was only one break in the first set. We both played good tennis.

I just have to have a better game plan. Sometimes it comes down to strategy; sometimes it comes down to having experience. I just have to go out there and play well, serve well, and believe I'll have a chance.

Nadal himself is taking nothing for granted, despite an impressive head-to-head record.

Every year is a different situation, said the 25-year-old Spaniard. Last year I beat him here in the semi-finals bit it was a very close match, even if it was in straight sets. In the second set he had a set point on his serve.

So the match will be very difficult for me, I think he's playing at a very, very high level.

However, he maintained that his injured foot remains an issue and that he would play with injections to numb the pain.

My foot is not fine, he added, I have pain in the foot, I cannot run in perfect conditions without (an injection). But with the anaesthetic, I don't feel the pain.