Much anticipation over the second semi final and nearly all of it to do with Andy Murray and his quest to win a grand slam tournament. Here it is virtually a preoccupation of people to discuss the latest in the Murray assault on Wimbledon, and now that he faced the world's number one and reigning champ Rafa Nadal the interest was at fever pitch.
Andy began the match impressively, holding serve confidently - a habit he needed to very quickly fall into if wished to maintain some pressure on the top seed. The two players both predictably were strong off the ground and the points were intense and hard hitting. Andy particularly impressed with his forehand and his willingness to attack the Nadal serve. For eleven games, though, no returning could achieve a break for either of the two.
Twas 5-6 when Nadal strode to the service line that Andy pounced. Aided by some unexpected and unprecedented unforced errors off the Spanish racquet, Andy broke serve to take the opening set 7-5 and the Centre Court crowd went absolutely delirious with joy.
That delirium may well have continued early into set two had the Scot - who on Wimbledon semi final day is adopted by all Brits it seems - converted a relatively simple chance to go ahead 15-40 on a Nadal serve and maybe taken the game to lead 3-1. However, he didn't and if you don't take the rare chances made available to you in a match like this, it can hurt.
Nadal did the hurting in no uncertain terms. Going on a game winning spree and treating the Scottish serve with contempt almost, the world number one took little time to even the match by winning the second set 6-2. Murray's frustration was palpable as the struggle to stop the Spanish Armarda continued into the third set. Because Nadal had decided to close his unforced error production factory early, Andy felt the need to push for winners but inevitably went either too soon, too big or too wide, or a combination.
The match that began with such promise now was slipping away from Murray and rather quickly. The third set had gone 6-2 as well to Rafa, and the termination of the match came ever closer as Andy dropped serve in the opening fourth set game. Most of the crowd were now resigned to Murray's fate, although a glimmer of hope flickered when he had break points on Nadal's second service game to try and level at 2-2. The glimmer was blown out with Rafa remaining steady through that long game, as he did for the rest of the match, and the 2010 champion earned the right to defend his crown as king of Wimbledon after a stylish 5-7 6-2 6-2 6-4 victory over a plucky Andy Murray.
The Scot's challenges each year do not diminish his potential to one day win this title.
There are some weaknesses in his game that can be addressed, and tactically he is just a little behind the top three in executing some of these matches.
So we have a mouth watering Sunday main course featuring the top two seeds and two best performed players of the year. Novak Djokovic will be statistically number one irrespective but would rather prove it on court and take the title - his first at Wimbledon, while Rafael Nadal would dearly love to make it grand slam tournament number 11, equalling the likes of Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg.
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