LONDON — The deafening cheers erupting around Wimbledon as Rafa Nadal stood at the baseline, bouncing a ball and poised to take a two-set lead against Sam Querrey, provided the newsflash he welcomed and dreaded with equal measure — Roger Federer was through to the semifinals.

It meant it was game on for a Federer-Nadal blockbuster and all the Spaniard had to do to ensure Act 40 of the most compelling rivalry in tennis became a reality was to win one more point and another set.

And there was no stopping Nadal on Wednesday as he soaked up 22 thunderbolt aces to flatten Querrey 7-5 6-2 6-2 and reach his 32^nd Grand Slam semifinal and seventh at Wimbledon.

Ever since the draw set Nadal and Federer on a collision course, tennis fans around the world started dreaming, hoping and longing that the two most successful players on planet tennis would renew their rivalry on the sport’s greatest stage for the first time since their mesmerizing 2008 twilight epic.

In recent years Nadal had declared he was “not stupid” as he would “prefer to face an easier opponent” than the eight-times Wimbledon champion on his favorite patch of turf.

But since that was no longer an option, the Spaniard admitted that he was excited to see how the latest installment in their shared history would pan out.

“Playing against Roger is always a unique situation. Excited to be back on this court against him after 11 years. Means a lot for me and probably for him, too,” said the 33-year-old Nadal, who leads Federer 24-15 in their head-to-head meetings.

“I am excited to play Roger again at Wimbledon after such a long time.”

Perhaps it was the anticipation of setting up that mega showdown that provided the spark that the Spaniard needed to make a jaw-dropping start to his quarter-final against Querrey as he won all 12 points during his first three service games.

Querrey, a semifinalist here in 2017, finally got a foothold on Nadal’s serve in the eighth game but making any form of sustained attack proved to be mission impossible.

A warning for a time violation threw third seed Nadal, who had already squandered four set points, off his service stride in the 10^th game and allowed Querrey to break back for 5-5.

But that was as good as it got for the 6-foot-5 American as his serve might have been on fire but everything else was misfiring.

Querrey had bulldozed his way into the last eight by firing down 100 aces and winning 71 of his 72 service games.

But when it came to facing a man who owns 18 Grand Slam titles, Querrey knew that such stats were meaningless.

“It’s his least favorite place of the slams and he’s finalled it five times (and won twice). And he’s been rolling through guys. It’s going to be tough,” the unseeded American said in the build-up to the quarterfinal.

That assessment was spot on as an airborne Nadal was celebrating with a fist pump after sealing the first set with a service winner and could have drilled a volley right into his opponent’s chest to win the second but gently, and politely, tapped it away to take a 2-0 lead.

As he sprinted back to his chair, the 37-year-old Federer’s winning score flashed up on the Court One screen but Nadal had no time for such distractions.

Instead he pulled out a fresh shirt from his bag and slipped it over his head as he needed no official confirmation about the identity of his next opponent — the deafening roars still ringing around the grounds had already done that. — Reuters

LOS ANGELES — Most of the big names in NBA free agency agreed to new deals within hours of the deadline passing last week.

In his annual summer league news conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday, commissioner Adam Silver said that doesn’t sit well with him.

“My sense in the room today was, especially when it comes to free agency and the rules around it, that we’ve got work to do,” said Silver, who was speaking after the annual board of governors meetings wrapped up.

“… it’s still the same principles of fair balance of power and a sense that it’s a level playing field. I think that’s what teams want to know. I think they’re put in difficult situations because when they’re sitting across from a player and whether it’s conversations that are happening earlier than they should or frankly things are being discussed that don’t fall squarely within the collective bargaining agreement, it puts teams in a very difficult position because they are reading or hearing that other teams are doing other things to compete, and at the end of the day, that’s what this league is about: competing for championships.”

Aside from Kawhi Leonard, all of the most discussed names — the likes of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Kemba Walker — agreed to deals soon after free agency opened, leading some to suggest that teams had ignored rules in place to level the playing field.

“My job is to enforce a fair set of rules for all our teams and a set of rules that are clear and make sense for everyone,” said Silver. “I think right now we’re not quite there.”

Silver also expressed frustration with players publicly demanding trades.

“It falls in the same category of issues of the so-called rule of law within a sports league. You have a contract and it needs to be meaningful on both sides. There’s an expectation if you have a contract and it’s guaranteed that the team is going to meet the terms of the contract, and the expectation on the other side is the player is going to meet the terms of the contract,” said Silver. “Trade demands are disheartening. They’re disheartening to the team. They’re disheartening to the community and don’t serve the player well. The players care about their reputations just as much. So that’s an issue that needs to be addressed.” — Reuters