Jerzy Janowicz became the first Polish man to reach a Grand Slam semi-final on Wednesday when he defeated compatriot Lukasz Kubot 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 in the Wimbledon quarter-finals. The 22-year-old will face either second seed Andy Murray or unseeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco for a place in the final. Janowicz, the 24th seed, fired 30 aces and 58 winners before breaking down in tears and even exchanging shirts with his Davis Cup team-mate.
"I'm just really happy. I didn't expect I can go that far in a Grand Slam here at Wimbledon," he said. "Really I have not many words to say right now. I'm just really happy and it doesn't matter if I'm the first or second from Poland. it's my first semi-final and that's all that matters."
Janowicz had already exceeded his best Grand Slam performance by making the quarter-finals and has capitalised on the shock exits of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga from his half of the draw. Kubot, the 31-year-old world number 130, was bidding to become the lowest-ranked semi-finalist at Wimbledon since Vladimir Voltchkov made the last-four as a 237-ranked qualifier in 2000. Victory for Janowicz will see him rise to at least 17 in the rankings next week which would be a career high for the 2.03m giant from Lodz.