World No. 1 Rafael Nadal survived a scare and Roger Federer ended a run of recent losses to Tomas Berdych to lead the world’s top four players into the semi-finals of the Rogers Cup on Friday.
Defending champion Andy Murray and world No. 2 Novak Djokovic also posted quarter-final wins to complete the all-star quartet, but it was the possibility of a Nadal-Federer final that had tennis fans buzzing at the end of riveting day of action on the Canadian hard courts.
Playing in his first event since winning Wimbledon in June, Nadal has at times appeared to still be in holiday mode and the Spaniard was again slow out of the blocks against Philipp Kohlschreiber rallying for a nervy 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.
PHOTO: AFP
While Nadal could not have expected such a punishing workout from the 37th-ranked German, who has just one win over a top 10 ranked opponent this season, Federer stepped onto center court knowing the giant challenge that awaited him and responded with an inspired 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 victory over Berdych.
upset win
The towering 1.96m Czech has had Federer’s measure this season beating the Swiss twice, including an upset win in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
PHOTO: AFP
“It’s sort of hard to put a rank on it, but it’s nice always winning matches 7-6 in the third,” Federer told reporters.
“Today, I just think I had a good start to the match, had chances in the second and then it was just kind of one of those matches I thought was going to slip away again like at the beginning of the season,” he said.
Berdych had looked poised to continue his winning sequence over Federer when he stormed to a 5-2 lead in the third, but a relentless Federer refused to fold, finally getting the break he needed with Berdych serving for the match at 5-3.
PHOTO: AFP
With a breathless center court crowd on its feet, there was more drama to come during a pulsating tiebreak that saw Federer jump ahead 4-0 then grimly hang to clinch the victory 7-5 when Berdych sent a return into the net.
Murray, who must at least reach today’s final to keep his No. 4 ranking, produced his best effort of the week, easing to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over David Nalbandian.
It was Murray’s first win over the 28-year-old Argentine, who had been on an 11-match unbeaten run since returning last month from a hamstring injury that sidelined him for two months.
“It was one of the best matches I’ve played this year,” said Murray, who reached this year’s Australian Open final and Wimbledon semi-finals, but had little success in between.
confidence
“It definitely gives me confidence for the rest of the tournament and the rest of the US stretch,” he said.
The Scot delivered an efficient display throughout the surprisingly one-sided contest, twice breaking the tenacious Nalbandian in the opening set before closing it out with an ace.
Murray broke again to open the second and never allowed the 2002 Wimbledon finalist a chance to get into the match, ending the rout in a compact 69 minutes with another booming ace.
“I was expecting it to be a very tough match and it wasn’t. When you’re out there, you’re not really thinking whether it’s comfortable or about how easy the scoreline is,” Murray said.
“But he [Nalbandian] has been, over the last few years, one of the best at coming back from tough situations,” the 23-year-old Scot said.
toll
Nalbandian, who was victorious at last week’s Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, gave credit to Murray but admitted that playing 10 matches in 14 days had taken its toll.
“I feel a little tired for all the weeks, for last week and this one, and I didn’t get a rest,” he said. “But I’m pretty happy the way that I tried to play. In a few games I was close, but I made some easy mistakes.”
“I have to keep going, keep working, and I know I have a lot of tournaments from here until the end of the year. So I have to keep going in this way,” he said.
Djokovic, the Canadian champion in 2007, also had smooth passage into the last four defeating Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-2, 6-3.
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