For nearly two hours, Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka put on a slugfest of such proportions that even the likes of Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal (no, no Roger Federer, because he doesn't do slugfests) would have found it difficult to match.
It was one of the best women's singles tennis matches you are likely to see this year, and easily the best of Wimbledon 2015, with Serena and Azarenka going back and forth, back and forth, hitting some ridiculous groundstrokes, and finding some insane angles to leave the crowd at Centre Court asking for more.
While the tennis was of the highest quality, the result was rather predictable in the end, as Serena, after going down a set to the pumped-up Azarenka, found her rhythm and brutal power in the next two to cling the match 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in two hours and 3 minutes.
Azarenka, with Serena's long-time hitting partner Sascha Bajin egging her on, came in with a clear plan – pump those groundstrokes with plenty of venom from the off, keep it as deep as possible and put Serena under pressure.
It worked too in the first set, as Serena struggled to match Azarenka's power, with the duo putting on some rallies that made those jaws drop. The jaws rarely went back up, either, as the two players continued to show their baseline prowess in the second set, with one point in the third game particularly standing out.
The shots in that rally were stunning, the depth of the forehands and backhands as deep as it could possibly be, with Serena, eventually prevailing in that point and taking that game, before running away with the set.
Azarenka's serving prowess was on the wane now, with those first serves just not coming in as often as possible – the first serve percentage was over 70 in the first set, but it dropped to below 60 in the final two – and there was Serena, ready to pounce like a lioness on any second serve.
With Azarenka struggling to recapture her rhythm, Serena went in for the kill, breaking her opponent's serve in the second game of the deciding set, before ramping up that pressure with every service game that followed.
Azarenka did well to hold on and win three games in the set, but with Serena not looking like dropping her serve, all it took was for the American to serve out the match at 5-3, which she duly did, despite a few hiccups in that match-winning game.
This was one of those matches where you wish the women played five sets, because if they did, it would have turned into a classic that would have everyone talking about for years to come.
It was still good enough for that look of disbelief at what everyone had just witnessed due to the truly outstanding tennis – as good as any served up in this Championships so far – and the two things to take from this match are – Serena remains near unbeatable, and Azarenka is definitely back to her best.
Next up for Serena in the semifinals is Maria Sharapova, who battled past American Coco Vandeweghe in the earlier quarterfinal at Centre Court.
