LONDON, July 6 (UPI) -- Second-seeded Rafael Nadal Thursday won his quarterfinal match at Wimbledon, beating Finland's Jarkko Nieminen in straight sets.
The scores were 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
The match was postponed from Wednesday by rain and a lengthy match between doubles match between Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor and the tandem of Simon Aspelin and Todd Perry. That historic match took more than nine hours over two days.
Nadal advanced to the semifinals at Wimbledon for the first time in his career.
"Sure it's a surprise to be in the semifinals, it's an unbelievable tournament for me," said the 20-year-old Nadal. "My goal was to come here and play a good tournament. My special goal was after the tournament to say 'yes I improve a little bit on this surface.'"
On Friday, Nadal will face another rising young star, 21-year-old Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.
The other semifinal pits Roger Federer against unseeded Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden.
