Murray-Federer Final at Wimbledon Moves a Step Closer

It is 73 years since Fred Perry became the last British man to claim a singles title at Wimbledon and 71 years since Bunny Austin became the last British player to feature in a men's final at the famous All England tennis club in South West London.

But now British tennis fans must be starting to believe that the chances of not just one, but two, unenviable records being broken in the same year are increasing by the day. And it could all be thanks to a 22 year old Scot called Andy Murray. When world number one Rafael Nadal was forced to withdraw from Wimbledon through injury, Murray's potential path to the final should have become a little easier. Yet, as he is ranked number three in the world himself and was now the top seed in his half of the draw, Murray probably then became the man many would want desperately to beat. Particularly in front of his home crowd. The other half of the draw of course included a certain Roger Federer, the 27 year old from Switzerland now ranked number two in the world after several years as number one, and a five times singles champion at Wimbledon between 2003 and 2007. What a great spectacle a meeting in the final between a man carrying all the hopes of British tennis on his shoulders and another, who over the years has virtually been adopted by the Wimbledon crowd as one of their own, would be. And, after today's events, it would be a very brave person indeed who would bet against that very possibility. For shortly after Roger Federer had beaten the Croatian Ivo Karlovic in emphatic style (6-3, 7-5, 7-6), Andy Murray recorded an equally impressive straight sets victory (7-5, 6-3, 6-2) over the Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero in his own quarter final clash, to reach his first ever semi-final at the oldest tennis tournament in the world. Whilst Murray has still to learn the identity of his semi-final opponent, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick are currently meeting on Court Number One to decide that privilege, Federer already knows that German Tommy Haas stands in the way of him and a 7th consecutive appearance in a singles final at Wimbledon. Haas and either Hewitt or Roddick will prove anything but easy opponents for Murray and Federer in their respective semi-finals but on current form the final that British tennis fans are undoubtedly praying for has quite a high degree of probability. And Murray will feel that he has a slight psychological edge over Federer if they do indeed meet in the final as he has emerged victorious from six of their eight meetings, although Federer claimed one of his two victories in the 2008 final of the US Open at Flushing Meadows. The semi-finals are due to be played on Friday, with the final scheduled for Sunday. If it is Andy Murray holding the winners cup aloft come Sunday afternoon the strawberries and cream that have become a crowd tradition at Wimbledon may be washed down by more than a few glasses of champagne.