For the first time in days, the Centre Court roof was open. The sun even reappeared. The Queen was in the Royal Box. And Elena Rybakina, with all her power and poise, was winning again on the grass.

If this has been a wild and unpredictable Wimbledon in the ladies’ singles, here was the afternoon, as the Kazakh defeated Elina Svitolina to reach the semi-finals, when it felt as though some order and normality was restored to the All England Club.

Never mind all the other unexpected results that have been happening elsewhere in the draw; the 2022 champion brings something close to certainty to the lawns, mixing a fast, dominant serve and rapid groundstrokes with an understated nature that offers cool and calm.

There were seven aces, 28 winners and – seemingly – zero moments of self-doubt or concern.

The Queen’s presence was hardly going to disturb someone who plays lawn tennis with a rare, nerveless ease. Twenty-one times Rybakina has played at the All England Club and on 19 occasions she has been victorious, giving her a winning percentage above 90, which is higher than Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams’ numbers and just behind Steffi Graf’s.

What’s been truly astonishing this Wimbledon? That Rybakina was the only former champion to win a round in the ladies’ singles. Defeat for Rybakina would guarantee an eighth different champion at the eight most recent editions of Wimbledon, but she carries on winning, advancing 6-3, 6-2 in just over an hour, moving ever closer to lifting the Venus Rosewater Dish again.

That’s just nine games that Rybakina has dropped during her last three appearances. So many times this summer, the seedings in the ladies’ singles haven’t offered much guidance about how a match is going to play out, with No.1 seed Iga Swiatek departing in the third round while No.2 seed Coco Gauff lost in the fourth round.

Marketa Vondrousova, the No. 6 seed, became the first defending champion since the 1990s to lose in the first round. But the No.4 seed has been gliding through the draw, only dropping one set so far, which was in her second round match against Germany’s Laura Siegemund.

“I have amazing memories from 2022 and I enjoy it every time I’m on this court,” said Rybakina, who plays Barbora Krejcikova on Thursday for a place in Saturday’s final. “I don’t like being called the favourite but I have an aggressive game.”

You wouldn’t have known it, as Rybakina doesn’t give much away on court, but there were times on the way to winning the title two years – so becoming the first Kazakh player, man or woman, to land a Grand Slam title – when she felt on edge.

But this summer, she has been saying, she feels more assured on the grass, and that was clear here. Rybakina was hitting the ball so hard that Svitolina - who had been hoping to reach the semi-finals for the second year in a row and for the third time overall - had no time at all.