Andy Murray has won his Wimbledon quarter-final 7-5 6-3 6-2 against Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain.

Ferrero had been hoping of becoming the first wild-card player to win the Wimbledon men's singles since Goran Ivanisevic famously triumphed in 2001.

After putting his mother, girlfriend, 15,000 Centre Court fans and millions of TV viewers through the wringer with his electrifying five-set win against Stanislas Wawrinka under the new roof on Monday, Murray produced a no-nonsense win.

He treated a capacity crowd in a sun-drenched Centre Court to a decisive display of hitting, serving 18 aces and pouncing early on Ferrero's serve to take a step closer to ending Britain's 73-year wait for a men's champion.

The Scot broke in the 12th game of the opening set when Ferrero double-faulted, but the wily Spaniard, the 2003 French Open champion and former world number one, surged to a 3-1 lead in the second.

Murray reeled off five straight games with some gloriously crisp hitting and victory came when Ferrero ballooned a forehand long after 1 hour and 41 minutes.

The 22-year-old Scot will now prepare for Friday's semi-final against Andy Roddick - after the American's five-set epic against Australian Lleyton Hewitt - when the prospect of rain could see the roof in use again.

His match against Wawrinka did not finish until 10.39pm, the latest ever at Wimbledon, and Murray was unhappy at the short notice he was given that the roof would stay closed, as well as the humidity on court.

But asked if he feared a repeat occurrence, he said: "No, not at all. I think it was kind of made out I was complaining about the roof, I wasn't at all.

"I guess it was the first match ever to play under the roof and I was asked how the conditions were. I gave an honest and pretty fair assessment of how it played. It does play slower, which is not a complaint. It's more humid.

"It doesn't make a difference to how I'm going to approach the match, just you have to alter your game style slightly because it's a slower court. But I don't mind if it's indoors or outdoors.

"The one thing that I think is important is that if you are going to play under the roof, that you know half an hour in advance. That's all that I would ask for, which I don't think is unreasonable."

Murray was also quick to defend those fans who were absent from Centre Court when his match with Ferrero began. The third seed acknowledged the sweltering conditions meant spectators needed a break after Roger Federer's match against Ivo Karlovic.

He said: "It was roasting outside, so I'm not surprised after Federer's match - and we were out pretty quickly after that match finished - that people would have gone inside to stay away from the heat."

Revealing he had received a hand-written note of support from Sir Cliff Richard earlier, Murray continued: "I wouldn't recommend anyone sitting in that heat for five hours in a row, so it didn't bother me."

He added: "I understand that I can lose the next match if I don't play my best. That's been one of the things that I've learned, and it's made a huge difference to me over the last year or so.

"I feel confident because I've won a lot of matches on the grass, but every day when I get up to play the matches, I know that I'm going to have to perform very well, and that gets the nerves and the adrenaline going and makes me play better."

Meanwhile, sixth seed Roddick needed three hours and 50 minutes to see off his Australian opponent, recording a 6-3 6-7 (10/12) 7-6 (7/1) 4-6 6-4 triumph on Court One.

Defeat ended a remarkable run at SW19 for unseeded Hewitt, who has now lost all three of his meetings with Roddick on grass.

Afterwards, Roddick said: "I'm super relieved just coming off the court and really really happy. I hadn't really been in the grand slam picture much the last two years and now it's my second semi-final of the year so far so I'm thrilled right now."

Roddick also spoke of his admiration for Hewitt and the fight he put up throughout the clash, which was their 12th on the ATP Tour.

He said: "I think Lleyton might have hurt himself a little bit in that fourth set and it's testament to the type of player he is to have kept going and to have made it such a fight.

"There's a lot of respect there. We used to get into it a little bit when we were younger but I think we've definitely earned each other's respect and now we're just a couple of old married dudes. Maybe we've grown up a little bit."

© Independent Television News Limited 2009. All rights reserved.