Graphic: SW19 in 60 seconds | Graphic: Murray v Ferrero

He hasn’t purchased the tickets yet, but it has crossed his mind to go to the travel agents in Los Angeles and see what deals can be done on family first-class returns to London. As we stand two matches away from the Wimbledon men’s singles final to end all Wimbledon men’s singles finals, Pete Sampras is coming around to the thought of a long weekend in SW19.

There is still semi-finals day to contend with, when Andy Murray, the fourth postwar British player to reach this bridgehead — after Mike Sangster, Roger Taylor and Tim Henman — will play Andy Roddick. Roger Federer takes on Tommy Haas, of Germany, replicating the fourth round in the French Open last month, in which the Swiss was within a point of trailing by two sets and 5-3 in the third when he produced an off-forehand that had destiny writ through it.

Haas and Roddick may combine to poop the party, that is their absolute right. “No time to be tired,” the American said after a 3hr 50min slog to defeat Lleyton Hewitt, of Australia.

Sampras has not been back to Wimbledon since 2002, the year Hewitt became the champion, when his own omnipotent grass-court career was brought to a halt by the combined talents of George Bastl, of Switzerland, and the order of play committee that thought the American would cope, no bother, with the demons of the old No 2 Court.

He has cursed them from that day to this. A win then and he still had the opportunity to add to his 14 grand-slam titles, which Federer could surpass with victory on Sunday.

There has been no official invitation from the All England Club for Sampras, but he has only to flash his member’s badge and the gates will part. “I’ve been going back and forth [about the idea],” Sampras said yesterday. “Having two kids on a 12-hour flight to London isn’t my idea of a fun activity. It’s a long trip, but it’s a great moment in sport. Roger’s a friend and it would be great to be there.

“Wimbledon is an event I grew up watching at 6 in the morning. Watching [Bjorn] Borg against John McEnroe in those days had a huge effect on me as a kid and playing it, winning there seven times, I have a lot of great memories. Tennis during these two weeks, there is nothing that competes with Wimbledon. I miss that Centre Court, I miss playing great tennis. At the same time, life goes on. I’m here in LA helping look after a couple of kids.”

Rod Laver is the chairman’s special guest this weekend, and to think that Sampras might be mingling with the crowd, too. There is no doubt that the centre of the tennis universe will once again be this special piece of seared English grass.

No one understood and appreciated the Centre Court and its intimacy more than Laver and Sampras. In their day, it would turn a shade of brown throughout its full measure, for theirs was the era of serve and volley, old-fashioned virtues that one of the semi-finalists at least, the redoubtable Haas, has not given up on.

Murray is the epitome of the vogue, who starts the opposition’s service games six feet behind the baseline and does a huge number of lateral miles. It means that he has to be supremely fit and once again yesterday, after a fidgety start against Juan Carlos Ferrero, of Spain, he glided into the positions where he could inflict most damage. His 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 victory included one spell of 18 points from 19 at the end of a second set of sheer indulgence.

To break Ferrero in the sixth game — having been 3-1 down — he struck a backhand down the line, a backhand cross-court then induced an error on the Ferrero backhand, having teased the Spaniard with a couple of floaters into that corner. Ferrero’s double fault to lose his serve was simply a matter of grey-matter meltdown.

From there on in, Murray was in something approaching cruise control, a state of mind not enjoyed by many British players on this stage. Ferrero’s best championship-winning days are behind him, but he had taken out two top-ten players, Fernando González and Gilles Simon, to reach the last eight, so his game was well-honed. Murray picked it apart with ease.

The end of Novak Djokovic’s attempt to win the championship of his dreams was a 7-5, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 defeat by Haas, who has been forced through illness and injury to wait until he has reached the grand old age of 31 to perform in the manner of a 25-year-old. He won the first set on his tenth volley behind a serve, he served throughout with aplomb — except when he was broken to love at 6-5 in the second set. That forced a tie-break, in which he survived three set points before ending it with a beautiful backhand volley.

“I look back over playing Wimbledon for ten years and there’s been a lot of bad luck involved,” Haas said. “But these are the best results, the best tennis I’ve played here. I am realistic as to who my next opponent is.”

Ah yes, Federer. He stared down the biggest serve in the world yesterday, struck a couple of stunning backhand returns in each set and Ivo Karlovic, the giant Croat, was looking glumly at his size-14 feet long before the golden flashes on his opponent’s shoes were dancing into his 21st consecutive grand-slam semi-final.

Those who had tickets for No 1 Court yesterday were the fortunate ones. They saw nine sets of tennis as opposed to six on Centre. The last five were the pick, as Roddick withstood an immense challenge from Hewitt in a genuine Wimbledon knee-trembler; no roof, no artificial lights, just full-on, blood-curdling tennis in which the American, twice a finalist, won 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4.

Roddick went out of his way to applaud the Australian fanatics who had given Hewitt incredible support at the end — how tennis is meant to be.