LONDON (Reuters) – Rafael Nadal almost looked apologetic as he whispered words of consolation into Andy Murray’s ear after he made sure on Friday that Britain’s wait for a men’s Wimbledon champion would roll into a 75th year.

But moments earlier, the 2008 champion had played the role of dream wrecker to perfection as he roared into his fourth final at the All England Club by inflicting a painful 6-4 7-6 6-4 defeat on Murray.

After eyeing Murray’s lashed volley drop beyond the dusty baseline, Nadal collapsed on to his back and appeared as if he was celebrating winning a second title instead of merely booking a final date with Tomas Berdych.

“I wished him best of luck for the rest of the season, and sorry for today,” Nadal said of his net exchange with Murray.

“I know it was an important match for him. I felt sorry for him because he’s a very nice person.”

Nadal’s victory condemned British men to a 10-match losing streak in Wimbledon semi-finals, with Murray’s two flops adding to the failures of Mike Sangster (one), Roger Taylor (three) and Tim Henman (four).

The giant-killing run of Berdych, who sensationally ended Roger Federer’s pursuit of a seventh title in the quarters, showed no signs of slowing down after he dashed Novak Djokovic’s hopes of a maiden grasscourt title with a 6-3 7-6 6-3 win in the other semi-final.

LONDON (Reuters) – When Andy Murray walks out for his hotly anticipated Wimbledon semi-final against world number one Rafael Nadal, he will be looking to get one step closer to finally putting to bed one of the oldest jokes in tennis.

As soon as anyone brings up the topic of: “When was the last time a British man won a grand slam title?,” instead of answering the question, people simply dissolve into laughter.

A chuckling Roger Federer got the crowd at the Australian Open going when he suggested that “it’s 150,000 years” ago.

While Fred Perry triumphed at Wimbledon only 74 years ago, for many British fans that might well have been during the Ice Age.

“It’s obviously been a huge, huge wait for us, and it’s still obviously going on now,” Murray said as he prepared to for his second successive semi-final at the grasscourt major.

“The crowd obviously would love to see a British player win Wimbledon. It’s something that’s kind of joked about amongst players and people within tennis about how long it’s been since someone British has won at Wimbledon.”

But jokes aside, the pressure on Murray to end the interminable wait for a British champion has been mounting by the second ever since six-times champion Federer made an unexpected exit in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

LONDON (Reuters) – Like the rest of the sporting world, it seems that even Roger Federer cannot fathom that he actually lost at Wimbledon before the final.

As he has done for the last eight years, the Swiss maestro rolled up at the players’ entrance on the second Thursday of the championships in his courtesy car.

Except this time there will be no gentle practice session on the eve of the men’s semi-final.

Instead, after being the only member of the world’s top four to miss out on the semi-final party, Federer emerged from the car dressed casually in a t-shirt and jeans, and hurriedly disappeared into the building, perhaps looking to clear out his locker four days earlier than he would have wanted or expected.

While many pundits were ready to write the 16-times grand slam champion’s tennis obituary and hail the start of the post Federer era, John McEnroe reminded everyone one that the Swiss had the same blood coursing through his veins as everyone else.

“The guy’s a human being,” said the three-times former champion who has been commentating at the championships.

“He’s going to have to face the fact that he’s not going to win these things, and he may never win another thing. So everyone’s waiting, predicting when that’s going to happen.

LONDON (Reuters) – A sense of stunned disbelief descended over south west London at 3.46pm on Wednesday when the unthinkable happened — Roger Federer’s remarkable reign as Wimbledon champion was finally over.

When Tomas Berdych punched away a forehand winner to leave the Swiss maestro two matches short of reaching his eighth successive Wimbledon final, a chorus of 45,000 gasps could be heard around the All England Club and echoed by millions more around the sporting world.

The 24-year-old Czech’s 6-4 3-6 6-1 6-4 win thrust a dagger into Federer’s heart, leaving the six-times champion to contemplate going on holiday as he suffered his earliest defeat at the tournament since 2002.

“It was brutal for me. Every time he had a chance, he took it. If there’s anything good about this it’s I’m gonna get some rest,” summed up Federer, who added he had been troubled by a stiff back and right leg injury.

Before this fortnight, however, it seemed as if even a one-legged Federer could not be beaten before the final of the championships.

But after some crisp hitting from Berdych finally brought the man who had won 51 of his last 52 Wimbledon matches to his knees, Britain started to dream that this may be the summer when Andy Murray can finally end the 74-year long wait for a homegrown men’s champion.

SODERLING OVERCOME

LONDON (Reuters) – Surrounded by a trio of unfamiliar Eastern European challengers, Serena Williams discovered that the Wimbledon title was hers to lose on Tuesday after she survived the cull of seeds to reach the semi-finals.

Russian Vera Zvonareva, Czech Petra Kvitova and Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova — names that are barely household names in their native towns let alone in the wider world — earned their golden tickets to the semis after a day of topsy-turvy tennis.

Gone was U.S. Open champion Kim Clijsters, who fell to Zvonareva in three sets, and more surprisingly, Serena’s elder sister and five-times champion Venus was left flabbergasted as she was ejected by world number 82 Pironkova.

That left world number one and holder Serena as the only recognisable face in the women’s draw and the overwhelming favourite to lift her fourth title on Saturday. Yes?

Well, not according to Serena.

“It’s not mine to lose, it’s mine to win if I can get it. There’s three other people that are vying to win it. They have just as good a chance as I do,” said the 28-year-old.

“I don’t feel like I’ve been playing my best tennis in this championship. I feel like it would be a good win to get under my belt.”

LONDON (Reuters) – Not even a vocal drunken fan, who had to be escorted out of the grounds by police, or a back injury to rival Paul-Henri Mathieu could distract Rafa Nadal on Monday as he blasted his way into the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

After two successive five-set examinations, the 2008 champion was back at his aggressive best and he crushed the unseeded Frenchman 6-4 6-2 6-2 to set up an intriguing last-eight date with Robin Soderling.

“Gonna be very difficult match for me I think. Hopefully for Soderling too,” grinned Nadal, who came into the news conference chomping his way through one of the 100 bags of Mallorcan biscuits he has at to every tournament.

“He is probably one of the more difficult opponents that you can play on all surfaces today, but especially here,” added Nadal about the man he beat 22 days ago in the French Open final.

Nadal was sprinting towards a two-set lead when half a dozen police were called on to Court One to evict a male fan who kept on chanting Venga Rafa (Come on Rafa).

The man, in white shirt and blue jeans, was surrounded by the police and led away from the stands to the cheers of fans occupying neighbouring seats.

Nadal did not look up once to see what all the fuss was about but waited at the baseline for the commotion to die down before launching into another one-sided service game.

LONDON (Reuters) – Champion Serena Williams was dragged into an exhibition of fierce shot-making by Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon on Monday that was a feast for the eyes if not the ears.

The American stepped on court hell bent on settling a six-year-old score against the Russian who beat her in their only previous meeting on grass — which just happened to be the 2004 final here.

“I gave her a run for her money,” said Sharapova who fought tooth-and-nail for 96 minutes before going down 7-6 6-4.

Williams summed up the battle as: “Definitely tense.”

When two of the most recognisable faces in tennis face off the world sits up to take notice and the most famous father in tennis — Richard Williams — is no different.

After witnessing his other daughter, five-times winner Venus Williams, “play like a hell-cat” in her win over Australia’s Jarmila Groth, he hot-footed it to Centre Court to watch the Serena-Sharapova showdown.

But for anyone wandering past the famous tennis stage, they might have thought two alley cats were at each others throats as a multitude of shrieks, yelps and wails floated out of the arena as two of the hardest hitters went for broke.

LONDON (Reuters) – Whenever Jelena Jankovic is playing at Wimbledon, it seems as if the emergency services need to be on standby.

Two years ago she complained she needed a helicopter to transport her to a court that was so far from the locker room that it was like she had been banished to play “in a parking lot”.

In 2009 Jankovic wondered whether she would end up in hospital after “women’s problems” and the searing heat left her feeling delirious and with blurred vision.

So was 2010 going to be a drama-free year at Wimbledon for the Serb? No chance.

On Monday the Serbian fourth seed was again in need of medical attention as a back injury cut short her All England Club campaign in the fourth round, beaten 6-1 3-0 by Russian Vera Zvonareva.

She had walked on court resembling a wounded warrior with heavy strapping around her right thigh but that proved to be only one of her problems.

After struggling to keep the ball in play during the 24 minute first set, she started grimacing each time she launched into her service action or made contact with the ball during the second set.

LONDON (Reuters) – Sparks are expected to fly from Serena Williams’s racket when she finally gets a chance to settle a six-year-old score against Maria Sharapova on Monday.

The last time they met on grass, Williams was a sure bet to complete a hat-trick of Wimbledon crowns as she was facing a virtually unknown 17-year-old in the 2004 women’s final.

But somebody obviously forgot to inform the Russian to tell her about her bit part in the final, and instead she memorably tried to ring up her mother from Centre Court to tell her “Hi mum, guess what? I just won Wimbledon.”

On Monday, Williams, who stood stonefaced next to Sharapova on that sun-drenched July afternoon during the presentation ceremony, will be out to exact revenge and is confident there will no longer be any nasty surprises in store for her.

“She really knows my game. I think she really studies it. I pretty much know her game, so…” three-times champion Williams, 28, said looking ahead to eagerly-awaited showdown.

Williams has every right to feel confident as over the past few months she has taken her grand slam tally to 12 while Sharapova is still trying to work out how far she can stretch her serving arm after enduring numerous shoulder problems.

But when two of the most recognisable faces in tennis and hardest hitters face-off the world sits up to take notice and Sharapova is no different.

LONDON (Reuters) – Romania’s Victor Hanescu stormed out of his Wimbledon third-round match after appearing to spit at the crowd in chaotic scenes on Friday.

Four fans were also arrested in an unrelated incident on Day Five of the tournament.

Hanescu, seeded 31, was trailing Daniel Brands 3-0 in the fifth and final set when he walked up to umpire Kim Craven and retired after being involved in an altercation with fans who were cheering loudly for his German opponent on Court 18.

“Someone said something in the crowd. We don’t know what it was. He then appears to go and spit in the direction of those people,” a Wimbledon spokesman told reporters about the incident.

“It was 0-2 at the time. He then has a service game in which it looks as though he deliberately served double faults.

“He also swore in the direction of the same people. A combination of the spitting and swearing gives him a code violation for unsportsmanlike behaviour and then he retires from the match,” added the spokesman.

“He tried to shake the umpire by the hand, the umpire doesn’t accept the shake and then he shakes his opponent by the hand and that’s the end of the match.”