Nadal Into Semis, Agassi Rained Out at ATP Montreal

Rafael Nadal made the semifinals Friday at the ATP Masters Series-Canada, but Andre Agassi will have to wait another night to see if he can come one step closer to a blockbuster Nadal-Agassi final in Montreal.

The top-seeded Nadal punished No. 8 seed Mariano Puerta 6-3, 6-1 in a rematch of this year's French Open final.

"He doesn't have the fastest serve, but he places it really well," Puerta said on the Nadal softball delivery. "He handles both the slice and the spin really well. It's a serve that when it kicks, it really kicks, and it's hard to read. It makes it that much more difficult to break him and to attack the serve."

The No. 4-seeded Agassi led No. 6 seed Gaston Gaudio 6-3 when the rains stopped play for the evening, with the match between un-seeds Greg Rusedski and Dominik Hrbaty never making it to the court.

Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu (d. Beck 1-and-2) did beat the rains to move into his career-first Masters Series semifinal, earning a match-up with Nadal.

"I never expected to make the semifinals here," Mathieu said. "I would have been kidding myself if I told myself before the tournament that I'd be in the semis."

Saturday's order of play will be Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty vs. "Grinning" Greg Rusedski, (6) Gaudio vs. (4) Agassi (to finish), (1) Nadal vs. Mathieu, then (6) Gaudio or (4) Agassi vs. The Dominator or Grinning Greg.

"I'm playing really well this week," Nadal said. "I'm feeling good on court. Sure, I'd love to meet Agassi in the final but I learned my lesson a long time ago not to take anything for granted. Every match is a tough one and I've got to win my semifinal match before I get there. Mathieu is playing really well here -- it's not going to be easy against him."

The doubles Saturday will be Erlich/Ram vs. (3) Knowles/Nestor, (4) Black/Ullyett vs. (7) Bhupathi/Damm, (1) Bjorkman/Mirnyi vs. (4) Black/Ullyett or (7) Bhupathi/Damm, and Erlich/Ram or (3) Knowles/Nestor vs. (2) Bryan/Bryan.