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British third seed Andy Murray put in a punishing display of crisp hitting to dispose of Spanish wildcard Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5 6-3 6-2 on Wednesday and reach the first Wimbledon semi-final of his career.

The Scot treated a capacity crowd in a sun-drenched Centre Court to his full range of hitting, pouncing early on the Spanish player''s serve to take a major stride closer to ending Britain''s 73-year wait for a men''s champion.

"Very happy to come through in straight sets today because I had a long one in the round before," the 22-year-old said in a courtside interview. Murray had brought the tournament to life on Monday with his riveting five-set victory over Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka under the floodlit canopy of the new Centre Court roof.

"To get to the semi-finals for the first time is nice and I shall try my best to go further," he said. "Once I got that first set I started to settle down and I returned great at the end."

The Scot broke in the 12th game of the opening set when Ferrero double-faulted, but the wily Spaniard, the 2003 French Open champion and former world number one, surged to a 3-1 lead
in the second.

Murray reeled off five straight games with some gloriously accurate angles and victory came when Ferrero ballooned a forehand long after an hour 41 minutes.

He will play sixth seed Andy Roddick or 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia for a place in Sunday''s final.

"Both are tough, and have a lot of experience. Both former world number ones and grand slam champions so going to be a difficult match," Murray said.