Jerzy Janowicz became the first Pole ever to reach the men’s semi finals at Wimbledon when he beat fellow countryman Lukasz Kubot in an emotional last-eight match on Wednesday.
This year has seen a Polish invasion of London SW19, after Janowicz, Kubot and Agnieszka Radwanska all made quarter and semi finals respectively at Wimbledon. But in the men’s quarter finals, only one Pole could go through to the last four, in a competition blown wide open by the exit of favourites Federer and Nadal. Twenty two year-old rising star Janowicz was always likely to beat 31 year-old doubles specialist Lukasz Kubot in a head-to-head clash, and so it proved in the quarter finals with the younger player beating his older opponent in straight sets: 7:5, 6:4, 6:4.
Janowicz has the best serve left in the tournament and it blew away Kubot, who already beat expectations in reaching the last eight, as he is ranked a modest 133rd in the world. At the end of the match the two Poles embraced for nearly half a minute in what was, for Poles, an emotional moment, enjoying the best Wimbledon ever for what is an emerging tennis-playing nation.
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