Tomas Berdych stuns Novak Djokovic to reach his first Wimbledon final

The 12th seed had knocked out defending champion Roger Federer in the quarter-finals and proved that was no fluke by hammering his way to a staight-sets victory over the former Australian Open champion in 2hrs 17mins.

Berdych was back in the same groove that had been too good for Federer with huge serves and massive forehand winners, supplemented by a solid back hand.

The Czech made the first significant move in the sixth game by breaking his opponent's serve and it was fitting that a flat, thunderous forehand was the shot that gave him the opening set 6-3 after 33 mins.

The match really came alive during a remarkable second set tie-break which saw Berdych finally take with his sixth set point courtesy of a Djokovic double fault which totally deflated the Serb's supporters and the man himself.

Berdych crucially broke in the 11th game having earlier received a time violation for taking too long to serve and had to show great mental strength to deal with his failure to serve out the second set.

Djokovic broke him in the 12 th game with the help of a slip that saw the Czech still get the ball back while on his knees but then a net cord gave the Serb a chance in a tie break.

Berdych dominated the early part of the breaker, taking a 6-2 lead only to waste a series of set points with unforced errors and then an overrule at 6-5 to Berdych was proved to be wrong by Hawkeye but instead of allowing Djokovic to be 6-6 the point had to be replayed and the No3 seed eventually tied things up with a great back hand winner.

However, all that great work was ruined by that double fault to give Berdych the tie break 11-9 and the second set 7-6 after 1hr 43mins.

Djokovic had only ever come back once from two sets down and this time he had to achieve that aim to claim a first Wimbledon final but it was Berdych who prevailed with the Serb lacking the heart for the battle.

Berdych reached his first final in his 28th Grand Slam, putting him second in the list of most attempts behind Australian Kim Warwick who took 32 to get into the 1980 Australian final.