Murray mania swept SW19 this afternoon as the British No.1 Andy Murray faced up to Rafael Nadal for a place in Sunday’s Wimbledon final against Czech Tomas Berdych, who defeated Novak Djokovic in straight sets earlier on in the afternoon.

Celebrities were out in force in Centre Court to cheer on the young Scot including the Duke of York and former England football captain David Beckham. The1966 Wimbledon champion Manuel Santana backed Nadal was also in attendance at the Royal Box to show support for his fellow Spaniard.

The world No. 4 Murray knew he would have to pull out all the stops if he was to best the man ranked two places above him and continue his search for his first Grand Slam title.

In their only previous encounter at Wimbledon in 2008, Nadal posted a straight sets victory and leads the head to heads with Murray 7-3. However, Murray has won three of their previous five matches and only dropped one set on his way to this year’s semi-final so everything was set for a titanic encounter.

With the match being played at a high tempo, both players were serving well but it was Nadal who got the breakthrough at 30-30 in the ninth game of the first set as Murray cracked.

Having served two aces, the Scot went down the middle again but the Spaniard read it and, from the return, powered home the winner before going on to serve for the set.

At 40-0, Nadal had three set points to clinch the set but Murray battled back to 40-30 down before losing the set 6-4, only his second of the tournament.

Despite the setback, Murray was playing well overall and bounced straight back to claim the first game of the second set.

At 2-1 up, the British No. 1 then found himself at deuce on Nadal’s serve but couldn’t capitalise as the break he was looking for eluded him.

A few uncharacteristic unforced errors started to creep into Nadal’s game but his fitness was in no doubt as he continued to spray balls all over the court. At 4-3, Murray had two chances to break but let them slip.

The match then went to a tie break after Nadal had two, love holds back to back, but Nadal double faulted at 5-5 to give a set point to Murray and level up the semi-final. Unfortunately for the 23-year-old, the break wouldn’t come and Nadal took the second set.

Murray had it all to do now if he was to keep his Wimbledon hopes alive but showed no sign of giving up as he came roaring out of the traps in the third set to break Nadal’s serve straight away.

The fourth seed initially held his advantage comfortably until the eighth game when Nadal cranked up the pressure. Murray withstood one break point thanks to a big serve but missed his chance to take the game due to a wide volley followed by a double fault and then a netted forehand.

Moving quickly, Nadal shortly arrived at a match point in Murray's next service game and one was all he needed as Murray fired a drive volley long to seal Nadal’s a 6-4 7-6 (8/6) 6-4 victory.