Roger Federer straight-sets world No. 3 Andy Murray in a bravura Wimbledon semi-final performance

WIMBLEDON -  When Roger Federer hits Montreal in less than a month for the Rogers Cup, he will be 34 years old.

To put that in perspective in tennis years, he has head-to-head records against every one of the 16 men in the senior invitational doubles here with the exception of a few Brits who qualified by virtue of their passport, and didn’t play enough at the top level to give him a chance to beat them.

He even has a record against one of the players in the super-seniors’ event, Cédric Pioline of France.

By the way, his aggregate total against them is 60-15.

So the fact that the man can hit Centre Court in the semi-finals of Wimbledon and put on a performance so utterly spellbinding as he did Friday, defeating world No. 3 and former champion Andy Murray 7-5, 7-5, 6-4 in a match that went so far beyond what a straight-sets dismissal would indicate, is an accomplishment that just adds one more twist to the ever-changing narrative of Federer’s career.

Some day, he will slow down. It’s inevitable. But that day was not five years ago when people first talked about it, shaking their heads and mourning the decline of his greatness. And it wasn’t Friday, either.

Afterwards, he said it was one of the best matches he’d played in his career, and one of the best serving days of his career.

When Federer performed similarly against the capable Gilles Simon in the quarter-finals, it could legitimately have included a caveat that read, “well, yeah, but that was Gilles Simon.”

He backed it up Friday, with interest. The notoriously generous Wimbledon stats had him with 56 winners and just 11 unforced errors (Murray had 35 and 17). He served at 76 per cent first serves, had a 70 per cent success rate at the net, and had 20 aces in three sets against one of the finest returners in the game.

About the only thing reporters could find to ask Murray in terms of what he might have done differently was muse about whether he’d have been better off to choose to serve instead of receive when he won the coin toss.

That Murray came out firing, and earned the only break point of the match in that game, seemed to have escaped the logic there. And Murray himself didn’t think it changed much.

But he, too, couldn’t pick out much he might have done differently. When he goes back to look at video of the end of each set, when Federer stepped it up a notch to break, he might find a few niggly things like one backhand off a serve return that he ignominiously dumped into the net at one crucial juncture.

But it will be thin soup. Murray played well; that was the shock of it. He came out serving regularly in the 125-mph range, a major step up from his serving speed in his straight-set win over Canadian Vasek Pospisil in the quarter-finals. He went for it.

The result was modern grass-court tennis at its best, with Federer’s 33-year-old feet dancing all over the court on his way to the net, and a lot of nimble aggressive play from Murray on the baseline.

Murray said it was the best Federer had ever served against him, and they’ve now met 24 times, so it’s not a small sample size.

“I asked Andy question after question to see if he had the answers. A lot of times he had it, but maybe in the end it was a bit too much. That that’s why I won. It was deserved,” Federer said.

You can’t really say that Federer rolled back the clock because he’s had moments in this final phase of his career where he’s done exactly this, if not quite to the same extent, on the same occasion – not so much in major finals, but certainly in the quarters and semis. Federer has never lost a Wimbledon semi-final. Either he’s lost earlier, or he’s made it to the last day.

This year’s final will come against Novak Djokovic, who defeated Richard Gasquet of France 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4 in match with a nearly identical scoreline but which had none of the bravura, shock and awe that the second semi-final did.

Murray can probably turn the page quickly on this one. When you play well, but your opponent quite simply outplays you, there’s not much to regret or mull over. You just have to accept that you had a front-row seat to one of the better performances in the final stages of a Grand Slam in recent memory.

In his press conference, Federer couldn’t even be casual about it. There’s no way to know without really knowing the man how he really felt, but there wasn’t so much of that trademark Federer bravado, that, “Well, I expect myself to do these types of things in the final weekends of majors” attitude he has consistently maintained, even in recent years when it hasn’t happened for him against the very top players.

Federer harkened back to his semi-final effort against Canadian Milos Raonic last year as an example of a good match. And he noted the match against eventual Marin Cilic at the US Open last September as a not-so-good one. “I know he played very, very well at the US Open, but I never got into that match,” Federer said. “In the past, I’ve always found a very good level in the quarters and semis in Grand Slams. I’m glad I did that again, because it makes you forget the others – the bad ones I played, or the ones where the opponent played well.”

To get back to that age perspective thing, Federer, at 33 years, 338 days, is the oldest man to reach the Wimbledon final since Ken Rosewall, 41 years ago.

The dynamic was different in that one; Rosewall, then 39, played a 21-year-old punk named Jimmy Connors, who thrashed him 6-1, 6-1, 6-4.

Federer will play Djokovic, six years younger, but an opponent against whom he has a winning record at 20-19.

Their last two meetings at Grand Slams have come at Wimbledon – in 2012, when Federer won in four sets in the semis on his way to the title and a year ago, when Djokovic ruined the narrative of Federer winning “one more big one” by edging him 6-7 (7), 6-4, 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-4 in a brilliant final.

“At the end of the day, I enjoy it. I work hard in the practice. In a match like this, I can have a great performance.  And clearly it's an amazing feeling when you come back from the match and everybody's so happy for you, even like on the inside of the Royal Box when I was walking back, there was applause all the way to the locker room,” Federer said. “Something I don't remember really having, except maybe on one of the wins I've had here.”