London: When the Wimbledon draw is made next week, there will be a few players hoping the name Gilles Muller is nowhere near theirs.
The left-hander from Luxembourg is enjoying the best form of his 16-year career and is arguably the form player on grass having put together a seven-match winning run.
The 34-year-old carved down 12 aces on Friday as he beat former champion Sam Querrey at the Aegon Championships at London’s Queen’s Club.
But he is no one-trick pony.
Muller, something of a late bloomer has terrific touch, a tidy baseline game and, most impressively, still revels in the dying art of serve and volley tennis.
Ranked a career-high 26, and rising, Muller could clearly do some damage at Wimbledon where, surprisingly, has never got past the third round in nine attempts.
This is a year of firsts for the Luxembourger, though, having won his maiden ATP title at Sydney in January and claiming a second last week on the lawns of Den Bosch.
The father of two said his newfound status had taken a while to get used to.
“You can understand that it was something that I was working for my whole career, I mean I had to wait 16 years,” he told reporters on Friday after dispatching Querrey 6-4 7-6(5).
Next in Muller’s firing line will be fourth seed Marin Cilic, one of three former champions to reach the last eight, who was equally impressive in dispatching American Donald Young 6-4 7-5 on another sunny day at the prestigious London club.
Grigor Dimitrov, who won the title in 2014, also made it through after a mid-match hiccup against young Russian Daniil Medvedev who needed shoulder treatment after appearing to injure himself while practising his smashing.
Bulgarian Dimitrov, seeded six, won the opening five games but made life difficult for himself before winning 6-3 3-6 6-3.
Medvedev, ranked 60, was a break up in the decider but Dimitrov hit back to win with something to spare. He will face Spain’s 35-year-old Feliciano Lopez, who beat seventh seed Tomas Berdych 7-6(5) 6-7(1) 7-5, in the semi-finals.
“You can imagine the weight that I had on my shoulders to get that first trophy. When I got it, it was tough, to be honest. The first weeks after that were kind of a lot of questioning in my mind. So what do we do now? “It’s something you work for so long, and then basically you reach that goal, so what are we doing now?” With those initial questions, Muller has gone from strength to strength, reaching the Estoril final on clay to prove that he really is a man for all surfaces.
It is on grass, though, that his chances of a career-defining moment look most likely, especially as he will be going into Wimbledon as a seed and with his confidence overflowing.
“I think it’s a lot about momentum,” Muller, who beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round, said.
“I think on grass everything goes so fast, and I feel like even when you don’t play well you can still stay in the match with your serve.
Roger Federer eased closer to a ninth title at the Halle grass court tournament when he demolished defending champion Florian Mayer of Germany 6-3, 6-4 in the quarter-finals. The world number five, building up to an assault on an eighth Wimbledon title in July, will next face Karen Khachanov, who defeated fellow Russian Andrey Rublev 7-6 (10/8), 4-6, 6-3 in his last-eight clash.
