Nadal faces Murray in semifinal

New York—On a day judged as much by elapsed time as games won, Rafael Nadal came out looking the freshest.

Nadal and Andy Murray each won Friday to set up a semifinal matchup at the U.S. Open. They’ll be back on court today — their third straight day of tennis at a tournament that has been forced into some drastic scheduling changes after losing two days to the rain.

Fourth-seeded Murray won a four-set grind against 28th-seeded John Isner, 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2) that took 3 hours, 24 minutes.

No. 2 Nadal had a much easier time, handing slow-moving No. 21 Andy Roddick a 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 defeat in 1 hour, 53 minutes to emerge fresher heading into Saturday.

“I try my best,” Nadal said. “I don’t think about a short match for the quarterfinals. I think about trying to win the match.”

Saturday’s first semifinal pairs No. 1 Novak Djokovic against No. 3 Roger Federer in a rematch of their French Open semifinal, where Federer won to snap Djokovic’s 43-match winning streak. They both won their quarterfinals Thursday and rested while Nadal and Murray played Friday.

This marks the first time the top four seeds have filled the final four slots at the U.S. Open since 1992, but the second time it has happened at a Grand Slam this year. At the French Open, Nadal beat Murray in one semifinal and went on to defeat Federer for his sixth title at Roland Garros.

“I think they’re pretty firmly the best players in the world right now,” Roddick said. “They certainly deserve the numbers next to their names. They’re playing great.”

Over the first six matches on his road to the U.S. Open title last year, Nadal did not lose a set. He is on the same pace through five matches this year.

Though Roddick needed two visits from the trainer and was clearly showing signs of fatigue from a four-set win the day before, Nadal did his part by never giving the 2003 champion even a glimmer of hope.

The most impressive statistic was Nadal’s 22 winners from the forehand side, compared to none for Roddick. /ap