Pete Sampras of the United States celebrates a point in his semifinal match. (Reuters)

Ninety minutes and 31 games later, his large body now casting a late-afternoon shadow across the Centre Court baseline, Ivanisevic dropped to his knees and screamed at those same heavens in relief. After almost blowing a two-sets-to-none lead, and squandering two match points in the fourth set, Ivanisevic finally had finished off No. 9 Richard Krajicek, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-7 (7-5), 15-13.

Throughout the marathon, Sampras and Henman waited in nervous anticipation, well aware that their match was the one the crowd had come to see. And once they did step on the court, with Sampras cast in the unfamiliar role of schoolyard bully, Henman made a gallant, but unsuccessful attempt to unseat the world's No. 1 player and give England its first men's Wimbledon finalist in 60 years.

To the despair of the fans, the excellent serve-and-volley matchup ended with Sampras a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victor. Sampras will play Ivanisevic Sunday afternoon. The top seed and defending champion, Sampras, 26, will be bidding to win his fifth Wimbledon title — tying Bjorn Borg for the modern-era record — and his 11th Grand Slam crown.

"He'll win this tournament one year," a gracious Sampras said of Henman, whom he considers a friend. "He's 23, and he's just going to get better and better, and he gained some experience today. It was a very tough match. The difference was just a couple of points here and there, and I seemed to get them today."

The match turned in the 12th game of the third set, when Henman, serving, fended off two sets points before Sampras put him away. In the stands, Sampras's girlfriend, actress Kimberly Williams, raised her arms above her head to be certain he saw her clapping her approval, while the rest of the crowd tried to shake off its disappointment.

"At 5-6, he was the one that came up with the goods," Henman said. "It's relentless the way he plays."

A first-time Grand Slam semifinalist playing under incredible national pressure, the 12th-seeded Henman became the first player here to take a set off Sampras, who appears to have recaptured the form he had been lacking this year. "It's been a pretty smooth ride," Sampras said, "so I've no complaints with the way I'm playing."

Things never go smoothly for the notoriously hot-headed and unpredictable Ivanisevic, so when he did the unexpected today — when he failed to self-destruct — he could not help but go nuts. Ivanisevic threw his bandanna, his racket, his towels and anything else he could find into the crowd after defeating his Dutch opponent to earn his third shot at the Wimbledon title he has yet to claim. A loser to Sampras in 1994, and to Andre Agassi in 1992, Ivanisevic, a Croatian, is routinely referred to as "the greatest player never to win a Grand Slam."

The fans applauded him warmly, slowly emerging from the numbness that seemed to settle over everyone during the long, agonizing fifth set. Like Ivanisevic, the crowd thought that the match was over — and Henman was on his way onto the court — when Ivanisevic stepped to the line with a 5-4 lead and double match point in the fourth set.

Then, Ivanisevic let loose with a fierce serve that he — and Krajicek — thought was an ace, but the electronic beeper went off to indicate a let. Krajicek, who already was walking to the net to shake hands, turned as both players returned to their respective baselines — Krajicek smiling in relief and Ivanisevic smiling and laughing and looking up at the sky as if he wanted to ask "Why? Why?"

"Okay, it's 40-15, I'm serving okay," Ivanisevic told himself. "Now I'm going to hit another good serve."

He did, only Krajicek came up with a fantastic return.

So Ivanisevic walked back to the baseline again.

"No problem," he told himself. "40-30."

Then he double-faulted. Then he got nervous. Then Krajicek hit a winner, then a passing shot. He broke Ivanisevic, then held serve, then the match went to a tiebreaker that Krajicek won, 7-5.

"I still kept my mind there," Ivanisevic said. "I had a chance in the tiebreaker, then the fifth set was just a horror-thriller."

Krajicek broke Ivanisevic to go up 3-2 in the fifth set, Ivanisevic broke back, and, from that point, the match played like some sort of mechanical exercise. There were no more break points until the decisive game — only once did a game go to deuce — as Krajicek served up ace after ace after ace, and Ivanisevic pounded serve after serve after serve to Krajicek's vulnerable backhand, then moved in for the volley.

Krajicek served 23 aces in the fifth set, 42 for the match, putting him four shy of the Wimbledon record. Ivanisevic finished with 28 — a relatively low number for a man who led all of Wimbledon with 133 aces coming into today's semifinals — but this match was not about his serve, it was about his famously fickle head.

"That's strange, you know," Ivanisevic said, when asked how he kept his temper. "But I think, if I lose it for just a second, I lose the match. I don't think anybody bet on me when I lost the fourth set. Everybody said, 'Maybe it's going to be 6-2, maybe 6-3. He's gone. He's going to lose it.'‚"

Instead, he did not — surprising himself, surprising the fans, and even surprising his father, who stood in the stands looking stunned once his son won match point. The only one not surprised was Krajicek, who knows it's never safe to assume anything when it comes to Ivanisevic.

"That's Goran," Krajicek said. "The only thing predictable about Goran is that he's unpredictable."