Nadal comes into the other semi-final on a 23-match winning streak, on both clay and grass, and is aiming for his third consecutive Wimbledon final. How the young man from Majorca would love to add a Wimbledon championship to the four he has amassed at Roland Garros.
First there is the immediate task of subjecting Schuettler to his pugilistic approach. Nadal leads their personal head-to-head series by three wins to one, Schuettler's victory having come four years ago against an 18-year-old Nadal. Ranked at 94, Schuettler is Wimbledon's lowest-rated semi-finalist since Goran Ivanisevic, a wild card and 125th in the world, went on so memorably to lift the title in 2001. But, of course, this particular fortnight, Schuettler's finest since reaching the final of the Australian Open in 2003, will lift him comfortably back inside the top 50.
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