Tomas Berdych wiped out the chance of a Rafael Nadal-Roger Federer final by beating the Spanish second seed Nadal 6- 3, 7-6 (8-6) Friday to reach the semifinals of the Madrid Masters.
(dpa) Berdych had to deal with a rabid public intent on Nadal's success in the wake of his title a year ago.The pair exited after exchanging words, with Nadal explaining that home players will always get massive support.
"I played last week in Stockholm and lost to (Joachim Jonasson). The crowd also supported him but I didn't say anything," he said. "When you play against any local player it happens, that's good for tennis."
Berdych, who has now beaten the world number 2 on three straight occasions, saw it differently.
"I can understand that they want for him to win the match and win the tournament," said the Czech 11th seed. "He's second in the world, he's a great player.
"They have to understand that there are many, many other players that can beat him. And then when he tells me that (I'm very bad), it's nice that a very bad player can beat him three times."
Nadal admitted that he exchanged harsh words with the winner.
"In Toronto (where Berdych won) I didn't say anything. He was constantly giving bad looks and nasty looks to the opponent," Nadal said. "Today during the match it happened again constantly. He looked, and he looked at me with not a very friendly face."
Berdych will face off Saturday against Chile's 10th seed Fernando Gonzalez, who beat Serb Novak Djokovic 7-5, 5-7, 7-5.
Roger Federer and David Nalbandian will contest a rerun of last year's season title match in Shanghai as both reached the final four.
World number 1 Federer improved to 80-5 on the season as he put out American Robby Ginepri 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).
Nalbandian, seeded fourth, edged closer to a possible return to the Masters Cup in Shanghai in three weeks as he won only his second match against Marat Safin, 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-2).
The Argentine came into the match with a 1-6 record against the Russian, a clear crowd favourite.
Nalbandian also failed to put to rest a controversy bubbling over from his ill-tempered win against Tim Henman in the previous round, in which he called the Briton's reputation for fair play "the biggest rubbish ever."
The spat blew up late in the match, when Henman refused to give his opponent another first serve on a disputed point.
"He questioned my sportsmanship, but if we go down that road there is only going to be one winner," said the man known as "Gentleman Tim."
Nalbandian didn't back down Friday: "So he's not the sportsman that he looks like or he wants to sell that image. I don't know."
Federer lost to Nalbandian's fifth-set fightback in the final in Shanghai in November, but twice beat the South American on clay last spring.
"It will be a very tough match," said Nalbandian. "Every time we play each other, it's very close."
Nalbandian's win over Safin in nearly three hours nudged the Argentine up two places to sixth in the chase for one of the places in the eight-man season final.
Nalbandian is desperate to again reach Shanghai after passing fallen fellow contenders Tommy Robredo and James Blake onto sixth in the provisional standings. "I passed two players, I'm in very good shape for Shanghai."
Safin nearly overcame a performance that was riddled with 74 unforced errors, but helped by 21 aces.
"I'm actually more happy than frustrated because it's already my fifth week," Safin said after a possible preview of December's Russia- Argentina Davis Cup final in Moscow.
"I've been playing some great matches, a lot of three-set matches. I'm pretty happy. My situation was much worse months ago. I was 104, now I am fighting into the Top 30."
Safin was looking for his first Masters Series final four since winning Madrid and Paris back-to-back two years ago. A knee injury which kept him out for more than six months prevented him from playing last year.
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