Wimbledon men's semi-final predictions & tennis betting tips: Sorry Norrie

Free tennis tips, best bets and analysis for the men's singles semi-finals at the All England Club, Wimbledon on Friday.

Where to watch

BBC One, BBC Two & BBC iPlayer, from 1pm Friday

Best bet

Novak Djokovic to win & under 33.5 games
3pts 8-13 Hills

Men's semi-final preview

Wimbledon spectators have been robbed of a dream day on Centre Court after the unfortunate Rafael Nadal was forced to withdraw from the tournament before his semi-final against eccentric Australian Nick Kyrgios.

The desperately sad news came through in a press conference last night with 36-year-old Nadal unable to overcome an abdominal injury picked up in his brilliant five-set comeback success over Taylor Fritz in Wednesday's punishing quarter-final.

Nadal, who was already a doubt for Wimbledon due to a foot problem, had been looking for a calendar Grand Slam clean sweep having lifted the Australian Open and French Open titles earlier in 2022 as he rolled back the years in style.

However, Nadal is unable to add to his 22 Major successes at SW19 with Kyrgios through to his first Grand Slam final. BoyleSports have refunded outright bets on Nadal.

For now, all eyes will be on red-hot tournament favourite Novak Djokovic and home hope Cameron Norrie with the duo having Wimbledon's main stage to themselves.

Novak Djokovic v Cameron Norrie

Centre Court should be rocking as they seek to inspire new home hero Norrie but the cheers may be in vain against Djokovic, who in recent years has made Wimbledon's hallowed turf his own.

Norrie's run to a first Grand Slam semi-final is a commendable achievement, particularly given he has never gone beyond the third round of a major in 18 previous attempts.

However, the world number 12 has profited from an extremely generous draw with only one of his five Wimbledon victims having been ranked inside the world’s top 50.

That victory came against world number 32 Tommy Paul and he has twice had to go the distance - in round two against Jaume Munar and in his quarter-final win over David Goffin.

Norrie took time to settle and lost the opening set 6-3 in his comeback success in the last eight, but a similarly slow start against Djokovic could soon see the match run away from him.

Djokovic dropped sets in wins over Soon-woo Kwon and Tim van Rijthoven, while he needed to come from two sets down to beat impressive Italian youngster Jannik Sinner. However, while this is a new challenge for Norrie, the Serb is making his 11th Wimbledon semi-final appearance and can put that experience to good use.

The world number one outclassed Norrie 6-2 6-1 in the ATP Finals in Turin in November last year and, with another straight-sets triumph likely, backing the top seed to prevail in a contest featuring 33 or fewer games makes great appeal.

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