Federer Rolls, Nalbandian Next; Nadal Ousted

Top seed Roger Federer put the hammer down on game Robby Ginepri beating the American 6-3, 7-6(4) to win his 80th match on the season and advance to the semifinals at the Madrid Masters.

Federer’s chief rival and local favorite Rafael Nadal wasn’t as fortunate as the Swiss No. 1 falling to big-hitting Tomas Berdych 6-3, 7-6(6) of the Czech Republic.

Berdych drew the ire from the Spanish crowd not just for defeating their hero but then putting his finger to his lips in a silencing motion following his victory.

“I just showed them (the crowd) that they have to know that there's some other player in the circuit that can beat Rafael,” revealed Berdych. “And that it's not only him in Spain who can win. They have to know that tennis is for both sides. It's not only like football, just one team, and if they are losing it's still the same. I just show them there's something different than Rafael.”

Added Berdych of his testy exchange with Nadal at the net, “He just told me with his English that, ‘You are very bad.””

Nadal has not reached a tournament semifinal since his Wimbledon title loss to Federer. So in fact he could be the one that is “very bad”.

Berdych will now meet Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, a 7-5, 5-7, 7-5 victory over Serbian No. 15 seed Novak Djokovic in two hours and 22 minutes.

The 10th-seeded Gonzalez recovered from a 3-5 deficit in the third set to take his place in his fourth ATP Masters Series semifinal of the year (Monte Carlo, Canada-Toronto and Cincinnati) of the year.

Gonzalez has yet to drop a set to Berdych in two prior meetings.

Meanwhile, Federer will face No. 4 feed and former nemesis David Nalbandian who edged Marat Safin 6-4, 6-7(6), 7-6(2) in the first match of the day.

After Nalbandian was unable to serve out the match at 5-4 in the third, Safin had his turn serving for the affair at 6-5. But at 30-15 a Safin ball was called out that was clearly shown to be good on the replay, but the Russian was out of challenges. The ensuing 30-30 point Safin again came up on the short-end of a call as a running backhand pass just missed. The Argentine eventually broke back, and took the tiebreak for just his second win in eight tries against mighty Marat.

“Even though I had my chances, it didn't work my way,” Safin said. “The referee made a couple of mistakes, and I didn't have any challenges left. I heard they were both in the last game they were in. The thought was upsetting with me, but what can I do. I'm pretty happy. My situation was much worse months ago. I was 104, now I am fighting into the Top 30.”

Nalbandian also served for the match in the second but couldn’t close.

On playing Federer, Nalbandian added: “We know each other since juniors, and that's why it's something I take advantage of because we've played each other many times as juniors, and we know each other very well. That's why I get to know his weak points.”

Nalbandian and Federer have split their prior 12 meetings, with Federer having won six of the last seven encounters.