Darling of Centre Court decked

LONDON // Rafael Nadal crushed the dreams of the crowd and British hopeful Andy Murray in the Wimbledon quarter-finals, easing to a 6-3 6-2 6-4 victory. The Spaniard was simply unstoppable as he picked apart the Scot in front of a Centre Court crowd who had been hoping for a repetition of Murray's epic fourth round win over Richard Gasquet. From the moment Nadal, runner-up here for the last two years, broke serve in the eighth game the outcome was inevitable and Murray sank under a barrage of baseline thunderbolts.

The French Open champion Nadal broke serve twice in the second set and pounced again at 3-3 in the third. Murray had battled back from two sets and a break down against Gasquet but Nadal was relentless as he stormed into the semi-final, where he will face the either Rainer Schuettler Arnaud Clement. * Reuters