Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero went out of the Wimbledon singles championship today as Britain's Andy Murray broke new ground to reach the semi-finals for the first time.

The former French Open champion and the last Spaniard in the competition was swept away by the Scot 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 in just one hour 43 minutes.

Ferrero and Murray, the third seed, had only met once before, in the semi-finals at the Queen's Club just a few weeks ago, and the Scot had won there too with relative ease.

29-year-old Ferrero, who is currently ranked number 70 in the world and required a wildcard to enter the tournament, looked a little edgy in his first Grand Slam quarter-final since Wimbledon two years ago and had to recover from 0-30 in his opening service game and faced a first break point in the second.

By the third set, the Spaniard looked like he was running out of steam whereas Murray looked stronger and stronger despite the heat.

Murray will now face no. 6 seed Andy Roddick, who beat Australian Lleyton Hewitt in a tense and exciting five-setter on court no. 1 this afternoon.  In the other semi-final, Roger Federer, who tamed Karlovic's massive serve to win 6-3, 7-5, 7-6, will face Tommy Haas of Germany, who took four sets to knock out Novak Djokovic 7-5, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3.