Andy Murray was able to embrace the joy of reaching a second consecutive Wimbledon final as he powered past Jerzy Janowicz under the Centre Court roof.
The world number two argued vehemently with tournament referee Andrew Jarrett when the decision was made to shut the roof because of darkness at the start of the fourth set.
After dropping the opener against 6ft 8in Pole Janowicz, Murray had turned things around and did not want his momentum to be disrupted when he felt there was enough light left.
But he need not have worried, playing an exceptional set indoors to win 6-7 (2/7) 6-4 6-4 6-3 and set up a third final in four grand slams against Novak Djokovic on Sunday.
Last year there were tears as Murray defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to become the first British man to make the singles final in 74 years, but the emotions were less of relief and more delight.
Recalling last year, he said: “I’d played three semis in a row. It was the first time I’d been through to the final, so there were a mixture of emotions.
“I was very relieved after the semis last year, whereas this year I think I was a bit happier to have won the match. It wasn’t as much of a release after the match.
“Last year I think there was a lot of tension in my semi-final match, whereas today it wasn’t quite the same. I’ve got to a position I’ve been in before. Last year it was completely new to me.”
The victory against the 24th seed means Murray has reached the final ofthe last four grand slam tournaments he has entered. He missed the recent French Open because of a back problem.
After losing to Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final last year, he defeated Djokovic to win his first grand slam title at the US Open and then lost to the Serbian at the Australian Open.
There would have been a major inquest had Murray not made the final again given the argument over the roof.
Janowicz had been arguing throughout the third set that it was too dark but Murray disagreed, saying to Jarrett: “How long has he been complaining about the darkness? It’s not even dark.”
The rules on the use of the roof are vague, giving the referee “ultimate control”, but they do state: “The roof will only be used if it is too dark to play on without it.”
That was certainly debatable, but they would have struggled to complete another set in natural daylight.
Murray said: “I don’t know what the ruling is on it. I just feel that Wimbledon is an outdoor event and you should play outdoors until it is not possible to do that anymore. That’s my feeling on the roof. I mean, it worked out okay for me in the end.”
Murray added of his obvious anger: “Everybody would be (angry). It’s just normal. You’ve got all the momentum with you. It’s still very light outside.”
The Scot cited the 2008 final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, when the last shot was struck at 9.15pm, saying: “It was 8.40pm when we stopped. There’s still 40 minutes to an hour to play.”
The players were off court for 16 minutes, with nearly half an hour between the last point of the third set and the first of the fourth.
Murray certainly came out with purpose in the fourth set, immediately comfortable in the conditions while Janowicz was playing under the roof for the first time.
The British number one denied he had been fired up by the feeling of injustice, saying: “Once I got back on the court I wasn’t angry. It was for a few minutes.
“You just get back to the locker room, shower, speak to the guys, and get ready to play again. You don’t have that anger when you get back on the court. It’s just at that moment it’s frustrating.
“When someone in football kicks someone or puts in a bad tackle, gets sent off, people get angry for a few minutes, make a mistake or whatever, and then 20 minutes later it’s fine. I still had a job to do.”