All eyes will be on Andy Murray when the Briton faces the daunting challenge of taking on Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Murray, 21, produced an incredible comeback from two sets down to beat Richard Gasquet on Monday, while Nadal has dropped one set in four matches.

The pair are scheduled to meet in the second match on Centre Court.

In the other half of the draw, champion Roger Federer takes on Mario Ancic in the first match on Centre at 1300 BST.

The winner of that will take on either unseeded Russian Marat Safin or Spain's 31st seed Feliciano Lopez, who meet in the opening match on Court One.

They will be followed by unseeded veterans Rainer Schuettler of Germany and Frenchman Arnaud Clement.

After eight days of almost unbroken sunshine, the weather forecast suggests a more unsettled day at Wimbledon on Wednesday.

Both Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said they wished Murray well and there is little doubt that the focus will be on the Scot and world number two Nadal when they meet for the fourth time.

The Spaniard has won their previous three encounters, the first a dramatic five-set match in the fourth round of the Australian Open in 2007.

Nadal won 6-1 in the fifth but Murray still takes confidence from the experience. "I learnt that I could obviously play with him, play at his level," he said.

"For probably four and a half sets I was up there with him and definitely had my chances.

"But obviously I think both of our games have changed a bit since then. He's definitely playing better on grass than he was in previous years. I like to think I'm playing a bit better.

"It's going to be a completely different match to a year and a half ago.

"But I have to look at the guys that have given him trouble and the way that (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga played against him in Australia this year.

"It is really important to serve well, be aggressive, not give him a chance to start dictating the rallies, you know, is the game plan against him."

And Murray, playing in his first Grand Slam quarter-final, is confident that he will have recovered from his draining four-hour marathon win over Gasquet in time to face Nadal.

"Obviously, I would have loved to have won a bit quicker but I feel I have worked hard enough to be able to last these sort of matches every other day.

"I'm going to have to try to recover really well (on Tuesday), make sure that I get enough food in me, enough sleep, try and prepare the best that I can for the match with Nadal.

"Obviously he's the favourite for the match but I do think that I can win."

Nadal, 22, has been in imperious form, winning four of his last five tournaments including the French Open and Queen's Club.

His last defeat when fully fit was a straight-sets loss to Nikolay Davydenko in the Miami final on 6 April.

And the Spaniard has no concerns about facing a hostile reaction from the British crowd on Wednesday.

"The Wimbledon crowd are always very respectful with everybody," he said. "When I go on court I feel the people are with me always, so that's very nice.

"I know if I play against Andy Murray, probably the crowd is going to be with him, but I think with me they're going to be nice too."

Nadal required treatment for a knee injury at the start of his last match against Mikhail Youzhny, but he later said: "I felt something crack but I think it's fine."

Federer continues his pursuit of a sixth consecutive title against Croatia's Ancic, who came through 13-11 in the fifth set against Fernando Verdasco on Monday.

The world number one beat Ancic in the French Open last month and at the same stage of Wimbledon in 2006, gaining revenge for his last grass-court defeat which was at the hands of Ancic at Wimbledon six years ago.

"I completely underestimated him back in 2002 when I played him," said Federer, who has won 63 straight matches on grass.

"I got completely surprised. He played well until the very end. I was a little shell-shocked and didn't know what happened to me."

But Ancic admitted: "He was not Roger Federer at that time. I can sit here and talk about how I beat him, but actually it wasn't Roger Federer as we know him today."

Former world number one Safin has been one of the surprises of the tournament, rediscovering his form after a long slump to beat, among others, third seed Novak Djokovic.

It will be Safin's first quarter-final at the All England Club since 2001. "It was so long ago that it was still black and white television," joked the Russian.

No-one could have predicted that Schuettler, 32, and Clement, 30, would make the last eight.

"Probably at some point I had to come back because I was always trying to work hard, trying to stay fit," explained Schuettler. "I had a lot of injuries."

Both men had surprise wins in the fourth round, the German beating Andy Roddick's conqueror Janko Tipsarevic, and the Frenchman seeing off talented Croatian Marin Cilic.

(BBC)

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