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Nadal into semis; Djokovic, Blake exit at Rogers Cup

Fri 25th, July 2008

Toronto, ON (Sports Network) - Second-seeded Rafael Nadal rebounded from a long first-set loss to win, while defending champion Novak Djokovic and seventh-seeded American James Blake lost in Friday's quarterfinal action at the $2,615,000 Rogers Masters in Toronto.

Nadal had won all four previous matches with 10th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet, but the two became embroiled in a first-set battle. Gasquet won that with his 14th point of the tiebreak, but Nadal came back to win the last two sets easily, and took a 6-7 (12-14), 6-2, 6-2 victory.

The world No. 2 Nadal, who won the French Open in May and Wimbledon in June, had not dropped a set so far in the tournament, but advanced to Saturday's semifinals to face eighth-seeded Andy Murray of Britain.

Murray took a straight-sets victory over world No. 3 and third-seeded Djokovic, who beat both Nadal and Roger Federer to win last year's tournament. The Serbian Djokovic also entered this year's event with a 4-0 lifetime record against Murray. But that track record reversed course Friday, when Murray won 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) to get to the semifinal round.

Nadal and Murray have met on four previous occasions, with Nadal winning them all. Most recently, Nadal beat Murray in the Wimbledon quarterfinals in straight sets.

In quarterfinal action earlier on Friday, unseeded Nicolas Kiefer easily downed Blake 6-1, 6-2. Prior to the match, Blake held a 3-0 lifetime record against Kiefer.

The German Kiefer will be appearing in his second semifinal of the year. He lost in the semis earlier this season to Federer at the Gerry Weber Open. The 31-year-old is the oldest player left in the draw.

Meanwhile, Blake's unimpressive season continues. Although Blake has a 36-17 record this season, he has yet to win a title this year, claiming his last title in 2007 at New Haven.

Kiefer will meet 23-year-old Frenchman Gilles Simon in Saturday's semifinal round. Simon fought back to defeat Marin Cilic of Croatia 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, and improved to 3-0 lifetime against Cilic.

Simon shocked the crowd here on Wednesday, when he stunned world No. 1 Federer in second-round action. Federer was playing in his first match since losing to Nadal in this year's epic Wimbledon final.

The world No. 22 Simon has now won 11 consecutive matches, including a title in Indianapolis last week. His last loss came against Gasquet in the third round at Wimbledon. Simon improved his season record to 30-16, including a 19-8 record on the hard courts.

Simon and Kiefer have never met professionally before.

As for Federer, in the next few weeks he may find himself in an unusual position. Federer's grasp on the top ranking took a major hit with his departure against Simon in the second round. Should Nadal now go on and win the Rogers Cup this week, Nadal would have a chance next week in Cincinnati to dethrone Federer, who has held the world No. 1 for 234 consecutive weeks (since February 2004). Nadal is 770 points behind Federer this week but could cut that lead to a mere 275 points should he win the Rogers Cup, which he did in Montreal in 2005.

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