Wimbledon: After reaching his first Grand Slam semi-final, Bautista Agut reschedules his stag party

Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut reached his first Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon on Wednesday and promptly had to re-organise his stag party planned for renowned clubbers paradise Ibiza this weekend.

The 31-year-old Spaniard, who is due to get married in November, had to have a rethink about his stag party plans before contemplating facing defending champion Novak Djokovic in Friday’s semi-finals.

This enjoyable bit of re-arranging came after he dropped his first set of the campaign before beating Argentinian Guido Pella 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

“I had planned to be in Ibiza right now,” said Bautista Agut.

“We had everything organised already. My friends, six of them, are all there. Well, it feels better to be here in London.”

Bautista Agut, who just over a year ago lost to Djokovic in the French Open a week after the sudden death of his mother Ester, said he would get them to come to London instead.

“I think so. I think they will fly on Friday,” said Bautista Agut.

Batista Agut could hardly believe he had at finally broken into the last-four of a major at the 27th attempt.

“It sounds amazing,” Bautista Agut. “I really cannot be more happy. I had a really difficult match and had to manage a lot of emotions on court.

“I knew I had a good opportunity to play in the semi-final and I did very well,” added the 23rd seed.

‘Really good fight’

Both may have been outside the top 20 – the first quarter-final to involve two outside the top 20 since Lukasz Kubot and Jerzy Janowicz in 2013 – but they put on a good show for the Court One spectators.

Bautista Agut looked fully in control till 26th seed Pella found his rhythm in the third set and threatened to come back as he had done against Milos Raonic in the previous round.

However, Bautista Agut got a break to lead 3-1 in the fourth and held 29-year-old Pella at bay to close out the match and dash his opponent’s hopes of becoming only the third Argentinian man to reach the last four at Wimbledon.

“Guido is a really good fighter,” he said.

“He’s a really good player. Every match is really difficult here, every opponent gives everything on the court.

“I’m enjoying playing on these courts. I’ve enjoyed every match I’ve played.”

Bautista Agut, whose previous best at Grand Slams was reaching the last eight at this year’s Australian Open, has beaten Djokovic twice already this year in Qatar and Miami although he trails 7-3 overall.

“Novak is the number one in the world and he’s playing really well on grass,” said Bautista Agut

“I’ll have to play really good tennis if I want to beat him.”

Bautista Agut said he felt his style of game being similar to Djokovic’s is the reason he has enjoyed success against him.

“Well, because he is very solid from baseline,” said Bautista Agut.

“He likes to play a lot of rallies. Well, I like to play against an opponent like this, to play a match with a lot of rallies.”