Reginald Brace at Wimbledon: Murray on fire but Nadal remains huge obstacle to overcome

It was an unexpected goodbye to Roger Federer in yesterday's quarter–finals, but from a patriotic standpoint the most significant aspect of the day's play was the battling reaction of Andy Murray to his most searching test of the Championships.

Murray, who had previously not conceded a set in the tournament, absorbed a ferocious early onslaught from the Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to emerge a 6-7 7-6 6-2 6-2 winner.

The feeling that we might be watching the first British men's champion for 74 years is gaining strength with each round. He took such an early pounding from the uninhibited hitting of Tsonga that there were genuine doubts about his survival. Was this destined to be the end of Murray's dream?

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The evidence was ominous. Tsonga opened his shoulders at every opportunity, took risks on return of serve and whacked his own deliveries with a thunderous force which put the British No 1 under relentless pressure. When he grabbed the first set tie-break it seemed that his aggression could sweep Murray into the sidelines.

This was where Murray showed his credentials as a genuine contender for the title.

He led 3-0 in the second set but was overhauled and had to face another tie-break. This turned on a calamitous miscalculation by Tsonga who left a floating service return which pitched on the baseline to go set point down and then drove a forehand out.

The contest changed course there. From punching his weight with buoyant assurance, the Muhammed Ali lookalike lost his fire and optimism and could only win four further games.

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Murray was into his second Wimbledon semi-final with the good wishes of the likeable Tsonga who told him: "Make me a pleasure – go all the way."

Murray now faces the 2008 champion Rafael Nadal, who set aside the problems of his dodgy knees to remove Sweden's Robin Soderling in four sets.

The fact that the Majorcan triumphed against such a tough and uncompromising opponent after dropping the first set speaks volumes of his desire to regain the title.

Injured or not, and he said he felt fine yesterday, Nadal is a huge obstacle to Murray's progress. But the Scot has shown that he is running into form at exactly the right time. He has the resilience and ability to become Britain's first men's finalist since Bunny Austin in 1938 – and our first title winner since Fred Perry in 1936.

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Federer's departure at the hands of Tomas Berdych put paid to his plans to equal the record seven Wimbledon titles annexed by Pete Sampras.

Although he had beaten the 6ft 5ins Czech in eight of their 10 previous meetings he looked strangely subdued. His reactions were sluggish by his own lustrous standards and Berdych was quick to punish anything short or lacking pace. At his post-match conference Federer hinted at problems with his back and right leg throughout the tournament and said: "If there's anything good about this it's that I'm going to get some rest."

Unusually, he was a touch ungracious to his conqueror when he said he gave away the match.

It's going to be strange without Federer in the closing stages of the men's singles after so many years of dominance. Berdych faces Novak Djokovic who experienced little trouble in disposing of Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu. Nadal now emerges as the favourite, although Murray will have his own take on that. With justification.