Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer roll at Wimbledon
WIMBLEDON WEDNESDAY
Nadal defeats Andy Murray, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, and Federer defeats Mario Ancic, 6-1, 7-5, 6-4
WIMBLEDON, England -- Centre Court held two art exhibitions today, for what Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer wrought upon their mauled opponents certainly rated as something above mere tennis.
Nadal looked so celestial in his quarterfinal against the British hope Andy Murray that when Murray got to 15-30 on Nadal's serve in the fourth set, it felt as if they should've stopped the proceedings and held a small ceremony in Murray's honor.
As No. 2 Nadal mulched the 11th-ranked Scot, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, he served 13 games, during which Murray amassed 10 points, total. When he did return serves, Nadal usually found another way to thwart him by materializing all over the court to direct implausible shots at preposterous angles.
"I felt rushed on every point," Murray said, calling Nadal's shots "so close to the line and so hard . . . I mean, it's amazing how fast he moves his arm and how much control he has over it."
Thereby did Murray's run end two evenings after his loud comeback over No. 10-ranked Richard Gasquet, and thereby did the top Spaniard reach at least the Wimbledon semifinals for the third straight year, where he'll find either 94th-ranked Rainer Schuettler of Germany or 145th-ranked Arnaud Clement of France, once they complete their quarterfinal suspended for darkness at one set apiece.
Semifinal streaks also turned up in the Federer outcome, the streak much more towering. In barbecuing Mario Ancic of Croatia, 6-1, 7-5, 6-4, Federer wound up in the last four for the 17th consecutive Grand Slam tournament, dating all the way back to a third-round loss to Gustavo Kuerten in the 2004 French Open, and also looked more like, well, Federer, than at any time this year.
"I would consider it normal, meaning very confident," No. 1 Federer said of his feeling here, and he certainly knows normal after 64 consecutive grass-court wins.
As opposed to Nadal, who has lost one of 16 sets, that a veritable tribute to Latvia's Ernests Gulbis, Federer has lost zero sets here, and his service games on Wednesday left Ancic's break-points-converted statistic at 0-for-0. Even among a variety of subplots such as Marat Safin's surge to the semifinals, the top two have soared in the first tournament of the Open era with eight European quarterfinalists.
