Second seed Rafael Nadal ground down Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday to reach the Wimbledon singles semi-finals, where he meets Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.

The match was held over from Wednesday because of rain.

Double French Open champion Nadal, looking more and more comfortable on unfamiliar grass courts, wore down Nieminen's resistance in long baseline rallies, breaking his serve in each set.

The Finn, seeded 22, tried to mix up his shots and volleyed successfully when he could get to the net. He saved a match point with a forehand down the line.

But Nadal's movement and retrieval skills were too much and the Mallorcan reached his first Wimbledon semi-final after two hours 15 minutes with an uncharacteristic volley on his second match point.

Baghdatis, the 21-year-old Australian Open runner-up, knocked out Australia's 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt 6-1, 5-7, 7-6, 6-2 in another quarter-final on Wednesday.

The other semi-final will be between Jonas Bjorkman and defending champion Roger Federer.

Bjorkman won a four-hour, five-set quarter-final marathon against Czech 14th seed Radek Stepanek 7-6, 4-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4.

Federer beat  Mario Ancic 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.