All England Club officials have taken time to explain their rationale to Hewitt, but he has made it clear that his seeding rankles and that he would have preferred to face Federer in the final.

"It's a strange situation," Hewitt said. "I don't know how many times it would have happened that the top two ranked players would be playing in a semifinal in a Slam."

But though Roddick drew the longer straw, he will not be an overwhelming favorite in his semifinal. Unlike the other semifinalists, Johansson, the unpretentious Swede, is no international celebrity, but he is, like the other semifinalists, a Grand Slam champion, having won the 2002 Australian Open. A knee injury kept him from building on that breakthrough and forced him to miss the entire 2003 season. Despite his remarkable serve, fine returns and compact strokes, he had never before made it past the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. But he has won minor grass-court tournaments in Halle, Germany, and Nottingham, England.

"A lot of people, they say this is just once in a lifetime," Johansson said of his surprise Australian Open victory, in which he outplayed Marat Safin in the final. "I did not feel like that, because I've been in the quarterfinal of the U.S. Open twice, and I've been a top 10 before. I know that when I play my best tennis, I can compete with the big boys."

Considering that Johansson is 30 and Roddick is still 22, he is more the man among the big boys, but both generations have the same objective: a second major title. Roddick won his at the 2003 United States Open, but has not been past the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam event since Wimbledon last year.

"I think obviously to win Wimbledon is a big thing," Goldfine said. "But I think also everything that has been kind of written: What's wrong with Andy Roddick? Is he just a one-Slam wonder? All that stuff, he wants to prove everyone wrong.

"He's definitely lost some close matches, so I think you understand why some of the things have been written. But that being said, I don't think that it is the case, and he obviously doesn't think that's the case, so now it's just a matter of proving it."