Roger Federer made his supposed trial by fire at the hands of the giant Ivo Karlovic seem a trifling inconvenience as he waltzed into his 21st consecutive grand slam semi-final with a supremely confident 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) win.
The 6ft 10 in Croat sent down 22 aces but it had little effect on the five-time champion's steely nerves as Federer skipped easily through a potential minefield to be home and hosed after just an hour and three-quarters.
"I'm playing great at the moment," a delighted Federer exclaimed afterwards. "It's hard, mentally especially, when you are playing Karlovic. It's not easy to break him so to do it twice here was great. I'm very happy."
Karlovic appeared to be suffering a little stage fright at the arena where six years ago he sensationally downed reigning champion Lleyton Hewitt and Federer scented blood from almost the start.
The measure of his task, though, had been made immediately apparent as Karlovic won his opening service game to love, opening up with a 126mph ace.
It was the 80th consecutive service game he had won at this year's event after four matches in which no-one could break him at all.
Yet at the 81st attempt, it was his misfortune to run into the real Federer. First point, a second serve rocketed back past Karlovic before he could blink. Second point, he seemed so astonished that Federer managed to even get his first serve back into play, that he quickly surrendered the point.
Fourth point saw a 130mph serve boom towards Federer's backhand but, miraculously, he not just reached it but blocked it straight past the Croat to bring up two break points. Fifth point, Federer audaciously stepped forward to attack the first serve as early as possible and crashed his third service return winner of the game.
And that, effectively, was that. No wonder Federer treated himself to a little cry of pleasure for even at that early stage, Karlovic's confidence was grievously dented. The Swiss went on to lose just three points on his own delivery before drawing first blood in just 22 minutes.
Concentration was still the key for Federer as Karlovic donned some sunglasses, which made the beanpole look faintly mean and faintly ludicrous, and kept up the monstrous serving to take the second set to 5-5.
Yet again, though, Federer offered that uncanny champion's knack of raising his game at the perfect moment, again playing a couple of sublime points, first earning break points with a backhand service return and then sealing the deal with a whipped backhand pass.
Whenever the game went into a groundstroke battle, which was not very often because of the quality of the serving, Federer's supremacy was almost a bit embarrassing.
Still, though, he had to retain his patience since he could not earn a break point in the third set. It was a good job his own serve was working like clockwork, though, and when it came to an almost inevitable tie-break, Federer, with one of many returns he somehow managed to dip at Karlovic's ankles, earned the crucial mini-break to take command.
At the end, one more of his trademark inside-out forehand winners sealed Federer's 17th consecutive victory on tour, a run which has taken in victories in Madrid and the French Open. Whisper it quietly in the vicinity of Andy Murray, but he may be back almost to his supreme best.
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