Rich Benvin

Fifith seed Elena Dementieva beat Nadia Petrova to advance to her first Wimbledon semi-final in a match that saw both players collapse and recover under the pressure of Centre Court.

Marat Safin and Feliciano Lopez last met at Wimbledon in 2005. On that occasion Lopez emerged the victor, disposing of the Russian in the third round.

Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy remain on track for a fifth Grand Slam doubles crown, while Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic, the number two seeds in the men's event, were the other winners.

Defending champion Venus Williams moved another step closer to a potential fifth title with a largely trouble-free 6-4, 6-3 win over Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn.

More than 10 million people in the UK watched Andy Murray's win over Richard Gasquet on the BBC, a 44.7% audience share. Viewer numbers peaked as the match reached the fifth set, with 10.5 million tuning in at 9:30pm.

Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal go head-to-head for a place in the semi-finals berth on Wednesday, in what promises to be a contest of both brawn and brains. The crowd could play a part too.

Nobody is going to let Mario Ancic forget that he was the last man to beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon now they are due to meet again in this year's quarter-finals. Can he make it another unforgettable day?

Day 7 of the 2008 Wimbledon Championships was chalked full of great tennis once again. Centre court started with the meeting of former Wimbledon champions Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt squaring off. Hewitt managed to make the first set close pushing Federer to a tie break but then reality set in for the veteran Aussie. Fedex finished Hewitt off 6-2 and 6-4 the final two sets. #2 seed Rafa Nadal supringly came out and easily defeated Mikael Youzhny. The match had the potential to be a tricky one for the Spaniard since last year Youzhny took Rafa to the brink of defeat. Rafa’s steady footwork and powerful shotmaking was just too much for Youzhny. One thing to note is Rafa did hurt his knee in the match and it could be a big asterisk in his next match. Nadal will play England’s own Andy Murray who pulled off an impressive win over Richard Gasquet in 5 tough sets. Murray fell behind 2 sets to love but pulled back using his quickness and some great shotmaking. Another notable winner was Marat Safin, keeping his strong grass court playing streak alive. Maybe Marat will start to enjoy playing at Wimbledon instead of knocking it. Other winners include Lopez defeating Bagdhatis in 5 sets 8-6 in the fifth, German veteran Rainer Schuettler winning in 4 sets against Tipsarevic, Arnaud Clement beating Marin Cilic in straights, and Mario Ancic beating Fernando Verdasco in 13-11 in the fifth. There will be a lot of interesting match ups and matches going into the quarters. Fatigue may play an issue going forward with so many long matches. Only time will tell. Check back Wednesday for more updates.

Phoenix, AZ– June 30, 2008 –- HEAD players have shown success this year at Wimbledon through the round of 16. Eight HEAD players remain in the men’s main draw which means 50% of the players are playing with HEAD MicroGEL!...

O3 Speedport Black Team and O3 Speedport Black Longbody Give More Player Types Chance to Pick Up and Customize a World-Class Racquet

With week one in the books at this years Championships let us take some time to review the highs and lows of the All England Club. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal cruised through their first 3 matches with relative ease continuing on a probable collision course towards Championship Sunday. With all of the scrutiny that Federer has received, and all of the praise that Nadal has been given, both look ultra focused on their goal to become the 2008 champion.

Apart from Roger and Rafa, the rest of the men’s seeds did not favour as well. Third seed Novak Djokovic, 4) Nikolay Daydenko, 5) David Ferrer, 6) Andy Roddick, 7) David Nalbandian, and 9) James Blake were all gone by the third round. The loses of Djokovic and Roddick were the most surprising as both clearly had high homes of England glory. Djokovic perhaps was scared that Adidas would be upset with him if he decided to win Wimby in Nike shoes and Roddick is slowly but surely coming to the realization that he really has no backhand and volley.

WIth seeds dropping left and right there have also been some great re-births at this years Championships. Marat Safin is back in the picture as he dismantled Djokovic in round 2 and followed that up by taking out 29) Andres Seppi in round 3. Marat can lose to anybody but he can surely beat everybody as well.

The Serbian contingent is still out in full force as Janko Tipsarevic is making sure Serbia still has representation in the tournament. Roddick found that out the hard way as he made the earliest exit of his Wimbledon career. Janko has a great chance to progress to the quarter-finals as his next opponent is 32 year and the oldest player left in the singles draw Rainer Schuettler. Rainer really came out of nowhere this year to reach the 4th round, as his year to date record was only 4-13.

Looking ahead to the second week of The Championships, some mouth watering match ups are sure to come forward. The winner of Murray/Gasquet will give Rafa all he can handle in the quarters and Mario Ancic should challenge R-Fed in the quarter-finals. Marcos Baghdatis full of confidence and cocky as ever, thinks he should be able to take down Federer in the semi’s. Marcos offered his thoughts into his current turn around in form:

Q. Do you have any specific goals for this year in terms of where you want to be?

MARCOS BAGHDATIS: It’s to play better than last year, that’s for sure, which was quarterfinals. That’s my goal. But I know I can play big tennis; I’m feeling good, working good with Peter. I won’t be surprised if I find myself in semis and maybe beat Roger.

With Marcos’s wishful thinking, lets look at some of the other top quotes of The Championships so far:

Marat Safin, after he defeated Djokovic:

Q. If you play on the Centre Court like today, it’s like the place you feel you belong to?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, but you need to go through the stages. I played on Court 11, which is almost in another club. But still you need to go through these kind of matches to be able to play on the Centre Court. I think my ranking drop, so where you expect me to play? I’m 75 in the world and I’m playing against the Italian guy. Actually, not many people they care about this match. Actually, I was surprised it was a full stadium on Court 11.

So these matches you need to get through. Even though they’re tough, everybody’s nervous, the other guy is playing well. You don’t have any challenges there, the Hawk-Eye. The chair umpire may be half sleeping, but you need to get through these matches to be able to perform well and have a chance on the Centre Court.

Andy Roddick, after he defeated Eduardo Schwank

Q. The guy on the BBC as you walked off the court asked you about cardigans, all that stuff. Everybody has been talking about fashion, both men and women. Do you think that’s sort of like, Who cares? Do you enjoy the whole atmosphere here with that?

ANDY RODDICK: I personally don’t care. But, you know, if it gets ‑‑ you know, I think any attention drawn to tennis for whatever reason is good. If that means wearing the Mr. Rogers’ sweater, whatever else you got, then so be it. I don’t know if it would be a good look for me or any of my friends ‑ or relatives (smiling).

Q. Cardigans?

ANDY RODDICK: I’m sure they’re the best cardigans out there.

Q. It’s a long ways off, but some of the Spaniards were upset at the Davis Cup tie being put in Madrid.

ANDY RODDICK: Did they feel better after watching the French Open final?

Q. I would imagine.

ANDY RODDICK: All right.

Roger Federer, pre-tournament interview:

Q. You mentioned Borg. Are you surprised he’s not ranking you before No. 3? He’s ranking you as the third best player in the tournament. Are you surprised after what he said about you last year? He was so full of praise.

ROGER FEDERER: Obviously, yeah. That’s how quickly things change, you know. I mean, look, it’s his opinion. I don’t mind what he says. Obviously at the moment he has a microphone under his face and people ask him many, many things. Once he’ll sound more critical, once he’ll sound more positive.

But it doesn’t change much for me. I like when it’s praise. When it’s something else, when it’s more critical, you tend to just forget about it and move on, so…

Yeah, I don’t ‑‑ it doesn’t affect me much.

For the past few years, eastern Europe has been a hotbed of tennis talent. But those looking for the next big thing would be wise to look even further east - to China, Japan and Thailand.

There is a cracking day's play under way with all the fourth round men’s and ladies’ singles matches programmed and an excellent weather forecast. Follow all the action from all the courts right here on the Championships blog.

Rafael Nadal says he is halfway to realising a rather special Spanish dream after he followed his countrymen's victory in football's European Championships by moving a step closer to his first Wimbledon title.

Having survived a Court 2 encounter against Bethanie Mattek, Serena Williams is daring to look ahead to a possible final showdown with her sister, Venus. As in the past, it would be a bittersweet affair, however.