The door has blown wide open for Roger Federer to storm through and continue his extraordinary renaissance with an unprecedented eighth Wimbledon men's singles crown.
With the last two of his heavyweight rivals crashing out on Wednesday, Federer is tantalisingly close to adding another magical moment to his unparalleled career after surging into a record 12th semi-final at The All England Club.
The seemingly ageless Swiss avenged a five-set semi-final loss to Milos Raonic last year with a 6-4 6-2 7-6 (7-4) destruction of the big-serving Canadian as top-seeded titleholder Andy Murray and triple champion Novak Djokovic followed Rafael Nadal out the exit gates.
Widely pensioned off after hobbling out of Wimbledon last year with a career-threatening knee injury, not even Federer could have imagined how ridiculously successful his 2017 season would be.
Triumphant at the Australian Open in his first tournament back after a six-month layoff, the 35-year-old father of four faces Tomas Berdych - not Djokovic - in the semi-finals as he bids to become the oldest grand slam champion in 45 years.
And so wildly dominant has Federer been this season - in which he also completed the Indian Wells and Miami Masters double - that a 19th major may not even be the exclamation mark to his grand career.
The world No.5 and highest-ranked player left in the draw, Federer fired a warning to the remaining three challengers after celebrating his 100th match on London's hallowed grass courts in majestic fashion.
"I'm much better prepared for Wimbledon this year than last year," he said after winning his fifth straight match without dropping a set.
"Last year I had a hard, hard time practising through the claycourt season.
"The grasscourt season was difficult because of the back issues I had, and the knee issues. I was really lacking practice really.
"Then the matches, I could never really play quite so freely last year just because... I'm more focused on how the knee's behaving rather than how I need to hit my forehand or backhand, or what's not going to be good for my opponent.
"This year I'm just a normal tennis player again."
But there is nothing normal about what Federer's doing.
A month shy of his 36th birthday, Federer's 12th quarter-final victory eclipsed the long-time record of all-time great Jimmy Connors.
"I'm just so, so happy to be in another semi here," he said.
"I can't believe it - 100 matches. It's a lot. I'm very happy that my body kept me going all these years.
"I'm very pleased with how I'm playing. I'm happy my dream run continues and we'll see what happens next."
If he sees off Berdych, the 11th seed and 2010 runner-up to Nadal, on Friday, Federer will face either Croatian seventh seed Marin Cilic or Murray's conqueror, American Sam Querrery, in Sunday's title decider.
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