When Britain’s Andy Murray cast his eye over the draw for this year’s Wimbledon Championship, he would have spotted the name Richard Gasquet as the man most likely to trouble his progress to the semi final. A man that looked certain to be waiting for him in the last 16. In the case of Rafael Nadal, the defending champion and number one player in the world would have picked out Juan Martin Del Potro as the toughest opponent en route to the latter stages.

As it turned out, they were both correct but in Murray’s case he dismissed his potential conqueror comfortably in straight sets. Nadal however, had a much tougher time of it against Del Potro, taking nearly four hours to defeat the 2009 US Open Champion, who had seemingly saved his best performance on his comeback trail from injury for the match against Nadal.

The fact that both Murray and Nadal won and that their great rivals in the top World's four tennis players, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer have also made it through to the last eight would seemingly suggest that these top four players will once again contest the semi finals of a "Grand Slam" event.

Being in the top half of the draw therefore, Nadal looks set to face Murray in the semi final, the man who he beat at that stage last year, while Djokovic, who is the number two seed, looks certain to meet Roger Federer in the other semi. This of course is provided that all four win their quarter finals on Wednesday, for which the Quarter Final draw is as follows:
 

Rafael Nadal v Mardy Fish

Andy Murray v Feliciano Lopez

Roger Federer v Jo Wilfried Tsonga

Novak Djokovic v Bernard Tomic
 

Nadal has never lost to Fish in five previous meetings on tour, which includes a 1st round encounter at Wimbledon in 2007, which Nadal won in straight sets. Fish however is a much improved player since then and has risen to number nine in the ATP World rankings and is the tenth seed at this year’s Wimbledon. Nonetheless , this match would appear to be gift wrapped for the Spaniard and he should win in three sets.

Prediction: Nadal win in Straight Sets.

Murray meanwhile will take on the un-seeded Spaniard, Feliciano Lopez in the last eight, a man who he has beaten four times in four previous matches, with the loss of just one single set in the process. Lopez has over achieved so far at Wimbledon and being in the last eight must be a surprise to him as it is to most pundits. That said, he has been in the quarter finals at Wimbledon twice before, where he lost to both Federer in 2006 and to Marat Safin in 2008. Murray looked in great form against Gasquet and will have too much ability for Lopez in this match.

Prediction: Murray win in straight sets

The most mouth-watering match of the four looks likely to be the one between six times champion, Roger Federer and the popular Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The Swiss has a dominant record over Tsonga, having won four of their previous five encounters, including twice this year. They have never met on grass before, which is another factor in Federer's favour for a match that he should win comfortably and is currently the favourite in the Wimbledon betting to win the tournament outright ahead of his rivals.

Prediction: Federer win in straight sets

Novak Djokovic has the somewhat unenviable task of taking on 18 year old qualifier, Bernard Tomic from Australia, ranked 158th in the world. The two unsurprisingly have never met on a court before but Djokovic will have nothing but respect for a young man who has already dumped two seeds from the tournament, including the number five ranked player in the world, Robin Soderling. He is a player who appears to relish the big events; he reached the last 32 at this year’s Australian Open for instance, but was knocked out by Nadal in straight sets. Djokovic of course won the Australian Open this year and has lost just one singles match in 2011. it seems almost impossible therefore that a second defeat will be at the hands of this young qualifier in the last eight at Wimbledon.

Prediction: Djokovic win in four sets