Bullish Nadal overpowers Murray in straight sets

ANDY Murray has lost the biggest match of his career against Rafael Nadal in the men's quarter-finals at Wimbledon.

The Scot never really found any kind of form as the world number two Nadal showed his class, easing into the semi-final with a 6-3 6-2 6-4 win.

Here's how it happened...

18.52

Nadal has taken the first set 6-3 after breaking Murray's serve.

Depite some spirited forehands, Murray has been slow out of the blocks again, looking rather heavy-legged across court.

Nadal is looking good, his venemous spin shots causing Murray all kinds of problems.

Murray needs to step up the pace if he wants to pull this round and get the subdued Centre Court crowd on his side.

19.10

Nadal shows no signs of letting up the tempo as he breaks Murray's serve and leads 3-1 in the second set.

Nadal is winning his own service games in emphatic fashion.

It looks like it could be a short night. But then again, we were thinking the same in Murray's fourth round match, and look how that turned out.

19.30

Nadal has taken the second set 6-2, and he's looking more graceful, powerful, and unbeatable as the match progresses.

Murray is still staying too deep, and needs to start taking more risks and coming forward to the net, if he is to stand any chance of turning this around.

Nadal is convincing when returning, and he's only lost five points on his serve in the first two sets.

The crowd is looking for Murray to do something different, to find a bit of inspiration and start clawing back the points from the man from Mallorca.

But all the signs point to a swift conclusion to this match.

19.52

The third set is going with serve as Murray wins his service game to make it 3-2.

After 90 minutes of tennis, Murray is finally starting to get his tactics right, mixing up his game and actually stepping off the baseline.

But he still needs to break Nadal's serve if he's to make any impact on the scoreboard and save this.

20.05

Murray is fading fast. Nadal has broken his serve, and has won his service game to move on to 5-3.

Nadal has simply stopped Murray playing, his pace and spin rendering all Murray's efforts futile.

Nadal just needs one more game to wrap this up.

20.13

Nadal wins 6-3 6-2 6-4

A disappointing night for Murray.

Murray got the crowd going by winning his service game to pull a game back, but Nadal made no mistake in the following game, finally celebrating as he served himself into the semi-final.

An understandablly crestfallen Murray made a sharp exit from Centre Court, bypassing the autograph hunters as Nadal soaks up the adulation.

Speaking to BBC Radio immediately afterwards, Nadal said: "I tried to play very aggresive all the time.

"A win like this (in straight sets] is suprising against Andy. I am very happy to be in the semi-final.

"It's the best match I've played here.

"Murray probably felt a bit tired after his game against Gasquet.

"I think he's very good. He will be in the top five very soon."