The British No1 is in the mood and form to win the title but Roger Federer's defeat has added to evidence of the great man's decline
Andy Murray is in the mood and the form to win Wimbledon. He has the small matter of beating the defending champion Rafael Nadal on Friday to reach the final, but he is playing without fear and walks now with a winner's serenity.
On the day when one of his main rivals fell and two others had to fight hard to stay in the tournament, Murray came as close as is possible in this maddening game to playing the perfect match and left the dangerous Spanish left-hander Feliciano L�pez in a heap on Centre Court, with the faithful rising to cheer the Scot.
He won in straight sets in a minute beyond two hours and in front of an audience that had only just recovered from the shock of witnessing Roger Federer lose to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in five compelling sets that added to the evidence of the great man's gradual decline. He has now gone 18 months without winning a grand slam tournament and turns 30 in August. Time waits not even for legends.
While Murray was heading for precautionary treatment on a groin strain he picked up in mid-lob at the start of the third set, Nadal was still putting the finishing touches to a four-set win over the 29-year-old No10 seed Mardy Fish, now the US's best player, on Court One. It was on that court that Novak Djokovic, who came to Wimbledon with a single defeat in six months, had earlier struggled to beat the inventive and exciting Australian teenager Bernard Tomic.
So, on a day of shock and awe, of rising and falling form, Murray was the only one of the big four to come through virtually unbothered. He beat L�pez 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 and, for the third year in a row, goes through to the semi-finals, where he meets Nadal. It will be Murray's seventh grand slam semi-final ? three of them led to finals ? more than any other British player in the open era.
Nadal said the foot injury that had looked so serious two days earlier was "fine", and Murray reckoned his niggle was a minor one, too. With a passing injury each, then, they start on level terms in their semi-final ? Djokovic is no certainty to beat Tsonga, by the way.
As to who will be the favourite Nadal, reaching for his 11th grand slam tournament to bring him within five of Federer, will get the nod of the bookmakers but punters looking for even a slight edge may like to gamble on Murray because he is putting together a run that is as good as any in his career at a big tournament.
Of the grand slams in which he has reached the final ? the US Open in 2008 and for the past two years in Australia ? Murray has compiled wins en route to suggest he had a genuine chance; there are no flukes in tournaments that last two weeks and demand seven straight victories. Here it has been a similar progression but perhaps of even higher quality, certainly on a par with his form at Melbourne in 2010, before he collapsed in front of Federer's genius.
As we saw in the Swiss's loss to Tsonga ? close but, at the end, conclusive ? the aura has gone, whatever his protestations to the contrary, and the time is right for a contender to fill the void. If Murray plays with the cool precision that he showed against L�pez, he has a wonderful chance against his second Spanish left-hander in three days, albeit one 43 places higher in the world rankings and still officially the best player in the world.
It was tough to pick holes in Murray's tennis against L�pez. As Nadal is gracious enough to say, when Murray is in a groove he bears comparison with anyone.
The statistics alone from this quarter-final, his fourth in succession at the tournament, are impressive: he dropped only seven points on his serve and was not taken to deuce until the 21st game. Three of his 13 aces were the last three shots of the match as L�pez, no slouch as a server himself, could only stand and gape.
They began in near-silence, hitting decorously to match the mood, before pace and fire quickened in the first set. L�pez hit his 101st ace of the championships in his opening service game to lend the impression that he was going to fully test Murray's renowned return of serve. It did not work out quite that way.
Every department of Murray's game that L�pez tried to crack held firm but most impressive, perhaps, was his serving. It kept the 29-year-old Spaniard guessing throughout and held him firmly at the back of the court when he was clearly itching to come to the net.
Murray broke him in the sixth game, when L�pez betrayed a total lack of focus with the laziest of attempted drop shots and the set was gone in 41 minutes.
The second and third were carbon copies of the first and with the exception of some delightful exchanges when both players indulged themselves in exquisite touch tennis, Murray ruled without fuss.
His only anxious moment arrived when he was leading 4-3 in the third and was taken to deuce. That mini-crisis passed and he left court to a huge ovation ? even from his mother, Judy, whose admiration for his opponent, "Deliciano", had become the running joke of the fortnight. There is no room for levity now, though.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/jun/29/andy-murray-roger-federer-wimbledon
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