Tokyo, Japan – Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray were among the quarterfinal winners Friday at the Japan Open Tennis Championships.
The top-seeded Nadal notched a 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 victory over Santiago Giraldo of Colombia and the second-seeded Murray earned a 6-4, 7-5 triumph over Argentine veteran David Nalbandian.
Third-seeded David Ferrer also advanced with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) win over Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic and will face Murray in one of Saturday's semifinals. Ferrer won this title in 2007.
American Mardy Fish, this week's fourth seed, earned a semifinal matchup with Nadal after rallying for a 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-1 win over Australian Bernard Tomic.
Nadal is the reigning Tokyo champion and is bidding for his fourth title of 2011, but first since the French Open back in June. He lost in title matches at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open to current world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
Fish reached his eighth semifinal of 2011 and is gunning for his second title. He won in Atlanta in July and was also a runner-up twice more before the U.S. Open, with title match losses to Ernests Gulbis in Los Angeles and Djokovic in Montreal.
Saturday will mark the third meeting between Nadal and Fish this year. The super Spaniard won the first in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon before Fish finally prevailed for the first time in seven all-time meetings with a 6-3, 6-4 decision at the Cincinnati quarterfinals.
"Mardy Fish is playing fantastic this year," said Nadal. "I lost to him last time in Cincinnati, so it will be a big challenge for me tomorrow. I will need to be more aggressive than I played today."
Murray claimed his 19th win in his last 20 matches on Friday, a string that started after a surprising loss to Kevin Anderson in the second round at Montreal. He won the Cincinnati tournament before falling to Nadal in the semifinals of the U.S. Open, then captured last week's title in Bangkok.
The Scot also won at Queen's for the first of his three titles this year and was the runner-up at the Australian Open for the second straight year. He beat Ferrer in the semifinals at the year's first Grand Slam event to improve to 3-3 lifetime against the Spaniard. All three wins have come on hard courts.
"Ferrer is a very tough opponent," said Murray. "He has been in the top 10 for a very long time and is playing some of the best tennis of his career. I had a great match with him in Australia, rallies are always long and I'll have to be ready for to fight."
Ferrer is a two-time winner this year and a three-time runner-up. He won in Auckland and Acapulco in the first two months of the season and had a strong run-up to the French Open with losses to Nadal in the title matches at Monte Carlo and Barcelona, while also falling to Robin Soderling in Swedish Open final in July.
The 2011 Tokyo champ will collect $295,000.
