He is the 24th seeding for Wimbledon serves at a speed of up to 149mph, the quickest in the tournament
Four years younger than 26-year-old Murray he has already beaten him once, at the Paris Masters in November
Girlfriend Marta Domachowska is also a tennis pro who has posed topless for Polish Playboy
By ELEANOR HARDING and TOM KELLY
Just one man stands between Andy Murray and a second successive Wimbledon final. The bad news is that the man in question – Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz – is a powerhouse who stands at 6ft 8in.
Known as the ‘Pole-veriser’, his formidable presence means Britain’s number one has no easy task in today’s semi-finals.
At 14 stone, Janowicz is 7lb heavier than Murray as well as a five inches taller. He serves at a speed of up to 149mph, the quickest in the tournament, and has already beaten Murray once, at the Paris Masters in November.
The Scot will be cheered on by anxious crowds in Centre Court and on Murray Mound as he takes to the grass in SW19 this afternoon.
And alongside his mother Judy, 53, and girlfriend Kim Sears, 25, there will be a new addition to tennis royalty – Janowicz’s girlfriend Marta Domachowska.
The blonde beauty has flown in from Warsaw to cheer him on, and may yet prove a rival to Miss Sears’s title as Queen of the Wimbledon Wags.
With her long golden locks, slim figure and sun-kissed skin, the 27-year-old’s similarity to Miss Sears is obvious.
But while the pair may look rather similar, the comparison appears to end there.
In contrast to sensible Kim, who hails from the Home Counties and has a pet portraiture business, Marta wowed her male admirers earlier this year by posing topless for Polish Playboy.
Murray has insisted he will not be unnerved by his next opponent, who is the first Polish man to play in a Wimbledon semi-final.
‘If anything, it’s more likely that a player’s endurance ability is something I’d find it hard to compete against.
‘If you know someone can outlast you, it puts a lot more pressure on the beginning of the match.
‘If someone just has a big shot then you can try to find ways to take that away from them.’
He added: ‘I’m sure the nerves will start building the night before and during the day.
‘Dealing with nerves is a part of the job at this stage of a slam and you can’t dictate when they will hit you.’
But Janowicz’s camp is confident. ‘He likes to play in front of many people on big stadium courts,’ his Finnish coach Kim Tiilikainen told the BBC. ‘He doesn’t look up to the big names.
He actually gets pumped up playing the top ten, as he thinks he can beat anyone.’
He has been dubbed the new ‘bad boy’ of tennis and said in a recent interview: ‘I am an explosive character and a pure fighter.
‘On court, during a match, I focus on every ball. I don’t need to play aesthetically well. The most important thing is to win matches.’ Joanna Mludzinska, chairman of the UK-based Polish Social and Cultural Association, said: ‘Jerzy Janowicz reaching the semi-finals, a first for a Polish male, is beyond our wildest dreams.
Miss Domachowska’s former boyfriend is the world champion swimmer Pawel Korzeniowski, who she dated for five years and is thought to have been engaged to.
She arrived at Wimbledon on Wednesday, just in time to see Janowicz beat his fellow Pole Lukasz Kubot in the quarter-final in straight sets.
Yesterday, she was supporting him in the stands as he practised near Centre Court ahead of his semi-final with Murray.
Looking more demure than usual, she scraped her hair back into a bun and opted for a conservative ensemble of cream trousers, patterned T-shirt and navy blazer.
Asked about Janowicz’s chances against home favourite Murray in today’s semi-final, she said: ‘We’ll see. But surely he is in good form and playing very well.’
source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2356503/Wimbledon-2013-6ft-8in-Pole-veriser-Andy-Murray-final-place.html
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