Champion Nadal meets hopeful Murray

WIMBLEDON, England – Down 0-5 in the first set to the powerful Swede Robin Soderling on Wednesday, Rafael Nadal looked up at the scoreboard and saw six-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer down a match point to Tomas Berdych.

It didn't have an immediate effect on him, but unlike Federer -- who was unable to raise his level when he needed it most and was full of excuses after his loss to Berdych -- Nadal bore down and eventually fist-pumped his way past the Swede in a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-1 victory.

One year after he was forced to pull out of the tournament with a knee injury as the defending champion, Nadal has once again made himself the favorite at the All England Club. This is the fourth straight time he's reached the semifinals, and with the weather being hot and the courts bouncing the balls up into his strike zone, he's comfortably speeding to and fro and whacking heavy balls into the corners. As Nadal said, the conditions are a perfect combination of forgiving short blades of grass and brown dust.

"Lot of clay behind the baseline," he said with a smile. "You can move well, so ... perfect conditions."

His semifinal opponent, Great Britain's Andy Murray, will try and make the environment a whole lot less than perfect. Nadal beat Murray the only time they faced off in London the 2008 and is 7-3 against him, but the Scot has taken him down at the last two Slams they've contested -- the 2008 U.S. Open and the 2010 Australian Open. He's also won three out of their last five matches.

Without question, Murray has the tools to beat the great Spaniard, but the Nadal that he beat back in January in Melbourne re-injured his knee and was forced to retire after two and a half spectacular sets. This time, Nadal is brimming with self-belief and doesn't believe that his money shots will be rolling off the table.

"I was very happy about my level in (those) two sets," said Nadal of his 6-3, 7-6 (2), 3-0 Australian Open defeat. "I lost both, but I was ready to win both, too. I was a break up in both sets. Maybe the only thing I had a mistake in that moment was stay a little bit more calm. I have confidence now because I won a lot of matches in the last few months."

Unlike Federer, who was hit off the court by a stronger Berdych, Nadal more than matched a similar-style player in Soderling, ripping 31 winners and committing only 12 unforced errors in a 2-hour, 43-minute contest. Given that there were 230 points played, Nadal's lack of unforced errors is remarkable, especially when he knew that he had to press the action in order to survive Soderling's barrage. But even though his offense is more important on this surface than his defense, his ability to keep the ball in play until he gets good looks at searing ground strokes is extraordinary.

Now the question is, will he have to do more than serve at a high percentage and control the court with his forehand to upend Murray, or will he attempt to step further inside the court and take a few more cuts with his returns?

Murray, who played a composed and often spectacular match in a 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-2 victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, is strong enough with his two-handed backhand to push Nadal backward, just like he did In Australia. He's willing to attack his second serve and can also mix up his routine from the baseline and not give the Spaniard the consistent pace that he likes. But Nadal believes that his weapons are larger than Murray's, so all he has to do is execute, crush hard to reach balls and he'll enter his fourth Wimbledon final.

"I am happy how I'm playing, so I gonna try to do my game," Nadal said. "My game is try to play aggressive. Important thing is serve well. I'm sure that this style of Murray and Soderling is completely different. But at the same time, I have to still play at my best level if I want to have chances to win. I don't want to change a lot of things."

After exhibiting poor to mediocre form after his depressing loss to Federer in the Australian Open final, Murray has finally rediscovered his intelligent, forceful game. If he's going to beat Nadal, he's going to have to be as courageous as he was against Tsonga, and be even more consistent, as Nadal isn't going to go through the mental lapses that the Frenchman did.

"There's not one way to play against him," Murray said. "You don't want to leave the ball in the middle of the court to his forehand, because you'll do a lot of running. But you've got to serve well and try keep a good length and play well -- really, really, really well. He would definitely be the favorite for the match with his results here the last few years. He's obviously a very tough player on any surface, but he plays great tennis here. Psychologically I need to believe that I can win the match. That's the most important thing."

The key for Nadal is to make sure to get enough hard serves into Murray's weaker forehand side, step hard into his two-handed backhand cross-court, jump on second serve returns and make sure not to completely concede the net. For Murray, he has to focus on keeping a huge percentage of first serves in, keeping his forehand deep, playing ultra-aggressive with his backhand and not having any fear of the occasion.

Last year, Murray fell to Andy Roddick in a Wimbledon semifinal in which he was favored. This year, he won't go into the match as the man to beat, but given his recent success against Nadal and the fact that no British man has won the title since Fred Perry in 1936, the eyes of Britain will be firmly fixated on Murray. The pressure is certainly on.

"It's obviously been a huge wait for us, and it's still going on now," Murray said. "The crowd 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. I don't know how it affects the atmosphere in the matches or not. It's something that you just learn to deal with. It doesn't affect the way that I play."