If anyone wants to have a shot at beating Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at Grand Slams, they'd better be ready mentally, physically and tactically! If not we'll keep having the same two for many more Slams to come, in the same way that Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert dominated the women's game in the 80s.

On Wednesday both men showed no sign of taking their foot off the gas as they reached the Wimbledon semis. Marat Safin was also in the mix, but SW19 appears to be heading for yet another final between the world's top two players.

Federer played a great match to get rid of the last man to beat him at Wimbledon, Mario Ancic, 6-1 7-5 6-4. Facing Nadal would, of course, be a different game category, but the way Federer has moved to his 17th consecutive Grand Slam semi-final - an amazing statistic in itself - tells me that all that talk about his fading powers were a mite premature. He has now won 64 straight matches on grass while Croatia's Ancic probed hopelessly for some weakness in the Swiss armour.

The match had been interrupted with Federer leading 6-1 1-1  because of rain. It was only the second rain break we’ve had during these championships and it lasted for more than two hours. On the resumption, Ancic was moving his feet a little better - "small steps, small steps" as Boris Becker noted, no doubt reminding himself of what Gunther Bosch told him - but it made little difference.

Federer was gliding about, his shots unfolding like silk, his serves hitting the spot, passing shots arrowing over the net - it was a champion’s package from the champion. 

Nadal was no less awesome. The match the whole of Britain was waiting for got on court just after 6pm, but it was over soon after eight and there were no more heroics from Andy Murray. Nadal, superior in every department and quite stunning with his ability to pull off winners from impossible angles, went through to his third consecutive Wimbledon semi-final with a simple 6-3 6-2 6-4 win.

There was little Murray could do about it. His amazing comeback victory over Richard Gasquet on Monday, which finished at 9.31pm after almost four hours of huge physical and mental effort, had taken its toll. On a day when he needed to be at his sharpest, the Scot was just a fraction slow with his footwork and a fraction off with his timing. Against Nadal, that is fatal.

Whenever Murray looked as if he had pushed the Spaniard off the court and out of the point, Rafa ate up the ground between him and the ball and somehow conjured up flicked winners off that mighty left arm. Once, he took the ball literally inches from the grass at full tilt and re-wrote the geometry manuals with the angle he found to send it back cross court for a clean winner. Astounding stuff from an extraordinary athlete.

Afterwards, Nadal said he had gone out with the intention of being aggressive - and he succeeded. He stood up on the baseline, went for his shots and scored continually with a backhand that, laughably, was once considered a weakness. But Nadal doesn’t do weakness.

Murray said he didn’t feel too bad physically after the Gasquet marathon and refused to use it as an excuse, saying: "He played so much better than me. When I’ve played him before I felt I could get into the rallies and dictate because he hit high top spin. But now he hits lower over the net and his forehand is ridiculous. The arm speed when he hits the ball is incredible."

All of which is bad news for the winner of the Arnaud Clement v Rainer Schuettler match!

Murray was disappointed with his returning, which he considers one of the strongest parts of his game. But he pointed out, as so many have before him, that Nadal puts so much spin on the ball that it is difficult to find the middle of the racket. Murray, who is heading for Indianapolis, Toronto and Cincinnati, thanked the crowd for their "awesome support" and said he would try to do better next year. He didn’t do too badly this time.

The rain break helped Safin shed his nerves and, after losing the first set, the Russian came through to reach his first ever Wimbledon semi-final after eight previous attempts with a 3-6 7-5 7-6 6-3 victory over the dangerous Spanish left-hander Feliciano Lopez.

Safin seemed more bemused by his success than anything and pointed to a change of coach - he hired the former Argentine player Hernan Gumy a year ago - as the moment when he began to enjoy a reversal of fortune. 

Safin’s form has certainly been a revelation these past ten days and he showed patience in figuring out how to handle the Lopez game in a match sprinkled with some great stroke play. Things will be greater still if he can beat Federer on Friday, but you have to say that remains a long shot.

Nadal will have to wait to find out who he plays in the semi-final. Those two unlikely quarter-finalists, and both former Australian Open runners-up Schuettler and Clement, finished the evening level at one set apiece when the match fell victim to darkness on Court One.

Almost useless to add that the winner will be at a disadvantage if the match takes a long time to finish today. But then the winner will be at a disadvantage anyway playing Nadal. Ouch!