WIMBLEDON, England -- He announced himself, at the age of 19, with a five-set victory over the best player on the sport's most cherished stage.

	Roger Federer hammered Sjeng Schalken 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Roger Federer stunned Pete Sampras in the fourth round of Wimbledon 2001, ending Sampras' 33-match streak and a run of four straight titles. It signaled, in retrospect, the beginning of the end for a great champion and, seemingly, the beginning of the beginning for Federer, a champion in waiting.

Today, the tennis world still waits.

Since that day of dawning, there have been four fourth-round exits at Grand Slams and, more troubling, three first-round exits, the last a horrific loss to qualifier Luis Horna at the French Open.

Pat Cash, the 1987 champion, framed Federer's enigmatic career in four sentences in the Sunday Times the day before the tournament began

"If anybody told me Federer would still be searching for his first Grand Slam title two years on," Cash wrote, "I would have queried their sanity. The young guy from Switzerland looked like the complete package. He even played in a style that was similar to Sampras, and Wimbledon seemed the perfect stage.

"Now I am beginning to query my own judgment because Federer hasn't been able to cut it at the ones that count."

That might be about to abruptly change.

The No. 4-seeded Federer hammered Sjeng Schalken, the No. 8 seed from the Netherlands, on Thursday 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

In this, his 16th Grand Slam tournament, Federer, now 21, finds himself in a semifinal for the very first time. As fate would have it, he will meet Andy Roddick, the 20-year-old American, in a matchup that could provide some scintillating moments.

"I don't know. I don't know," Federer said when he was asked if he sensed a breakthrough. "People have been talking about me taking the next step, you know. It's all about giving yourself opportunities and then taking them.

"And this is really -- these two weeks have been the same for me. Now I try to go further."

Because rain backed up matches on Wednesday, Federer was relegated to Court 2, while Roddick and Serena Williams were the feature attractions on the larger stadium courts. Federer walked on the court and sat for five minutes, waiting for the tardy Schalken to appear.

The match was delayed 2½ hours by rain, making it only four hours shy of three days since Federer had been hitting seriously on the court. Considering that he had twice called for ATP trainer Doug Spreen during Monday's round of 16 match against Feliciano Lopez for treatment of back spasms, this was a good thing.

Schalken himself was questionable for the match, suffering from a lingering injury, a bruised bone in his left foot. It was Schalken who seemed the most affected by his injury.

Federer dominated the match, as Schalken broke his serve only once. Federer broke the Dutchman once each in the first and second sets and twice in the third. He had only eight unforced errors.

How's the back holding up?

"People who saw my match, they saw there was nothing wrong," Federer said. "I felt good, so I'm not worried at all."

Bring on Roddick.

"It's a great chance for both of us," Federer said. It's going to be a match that everybody's been kind of waiting for, especially myself, as well. He's been in a semifinal before -- me, never. So who knows if he's got more experience or not? This is quite tough to judge because we're quite young."

Is he concerned?

"No, no," Federer said, smiling. "What should I be worried about? Getting killed out there? No.

"You have a chance to go to a final of a Grand Slam. Especially, this, my favorite Grand Slam here in Wimbledon. So this makes me more excited than playing Andy."

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.