Quite predictably the two most popular players in men's tennis, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon on July 2 2008. Of the two, Nadal had the ungrateful task of playing against home favourite Andy Murray.

Given the pressure, however, Nadal proved his quality and won in an easy straight-sets match (6-3, 6-2, 6-4). 

After the game, Nadal expressed his admiration for the crowd at the All England Club lawns. "I think the crowd was extremely fair. Sure, all the time supporting Andy, but nothing more than usual. So I felt very well on court. Just can I say thank you very much, everybody, the crowd. Every day I go on court, I feel the people were supporting me. And today, sure, the people support Andy a little bit more, but were supporting me, too,” he was quoted as saying by wimbledon.org.

But it was Nadal who continued to the semi-final, not Murray. There, the Spaniard will face Germany's Rainer Schuettler. who on July 3 beat France's Arnaud Clement in a five-hour thriller (6-3, 7-5, 7-6, 6-7, 8-6).

Federer on the other hand had the easier task in confronting Croatian Mario Ancic.

In his fifth consecutive straight-sets victory, Federer smashed the hopes of Ancic and Croatia the same way Turkey defeated the Croats at the Euro 2008 earlier in June. Ancic was one of the pleasant surprises at this year's Wimbledon, but his enthusiasm could not match the experience Federer who is determined to show his best after the poor performance against Nadal at the French Open final earlier this year.

Ancic had one more reason to hope for the miracle against ,Federer because it was against Ancic that Federer suffered his last loss at Wimbledon five years ago.

This year, though, Federer was unstoppable and gave Ancic little room for maneuver although there was one bright moment of hope for the Croat half-way through the second set but Federer quickly gained control and won the second set by 7-5. The final result was 6-1, 7-5, 6-4.

In the semi-final, Federer will meet Marat Safin who struggled against Spaniard Feliciano Lopez but won by 3-7, 7-5, 7-6, 6-3.