Too many errors hampered Enqvist's effort

Enqvist steadied his nerves a little in the second set but Rafter's dominance continued, and he broke in the seventh game after coming back from 40-0 down.

That was enough to take the second set and a straightforward victory looked on the cards when Rafter earned two more break points in the second game of the final set.

It was then that Enqvist finally found his form and a superb backhand down the line saw him fired up enough to take the game.

The revitalised Swede then took full advantage of his first break point of the match in the next game, fighting back from 40-15 down to claim a 3-1 lead.

But his hopes were extinguished as quickly as they had arrived when the errors crept back into his game, and Rafter broke back to make it 4-4 and curtail the Swede's brief resurgence.

"I relaxed a little on my serve but after I went down I started serving well again," Rafter said of the final set.

"In the last few matches I've been able to keep my serve going and it would be the strongest part of my game right now," he added.

Both players pushed each other to their limits with the match reaching its most entertaining levels.

But it was Rafter who held his nerve in the tie-break after Enqvist dumped a simple volley into the net, and last year's finalist secured a semi-final place with an ace on his fourth match point.

Rafter will now play the winner of the clash between Nicholas Escude and Andre Agassi for a place in Sunday's final.

If the Rafter plays Agassi it will be the third consecutive Wimbledon that the pair have met in the semi-final.

"The English love their tradition and this has become a bit of a tradition at Wimbledon," Rafter said of the potential encounter.

"There's nothing more exciting than playing a guy like Andre at Wimbledon. It would be better if it was the finals but it's a bit premature and I don't want to talk too much about that scenario.

"I'ld prefer to play Nicolas but he has been playing some exceptional tennis, he's very dangerous and I don't think there's going to be that much difference between Andre and Nicolas."