Nadal and Murray through to Rome semis

source: cnn.com

Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray have both reached the semifinals of the Rome Masters after coming through their last eight matches on Friday.
Top seed Nadal looked out of sorts when struggling past Italian qualifier Paolo Lorenzi earlier in the week.

However, the Spaniard was back to his brilliant best with a 6-1 6-3 demolition of Croat Marin Cilic, a result that ensures he remains world number one and goes into the French Open as top seed.

Federer suffers shock Rome defeat

"First of all, to win a tournament you have to play well every day," Nadal told reporters. "Tomorrow will be a difficult match, I will have to play well another time, a little better than today."

Nadal's semifinal opponent will be Richard Gasquet, who followed up his shock victory over Roger Federer with a three-set triumph over seventh seed Tomas Berdych.
Frenchman Gasquet, seeded 16th, recovered from dropping the opening set to defeat seventh seed Berdych 4-6 6-2 6-4.

Meanwhile, Murray had to recover from an awful first set to defeat Germany's Florian Mayer 1-6 6-1 6-1.

Murray, who became the first British man to reach the Rome semis in the Open era, told the official ATP Tour website: "It is important because it is nice to do well in tournaments abroad.

"I want to be playing at the latter stages of these events and if I want to get to No. 1 in the world then I need to play well on all of the surfaces because Roger, Rafa and Novak all play well on all the courts."

In the women's event, world number one Caroline Wozniacki reached the semifinals after a marathon three-set victory over Jelena Jankovic.

The Dane survived a mid-match collapse to edge past Jankovic, twice a former winner of the tournament, 6-3 1-6 6-3 in over two-and-a-half hours.

However, second seed and French Open champion Francesca Schiavone is out of the event, much to the disappointment of the Rome fans.

The Italian was never a match for sixth seed Samantha Stosur, with the Australian going through 6-2 6-4.

Chinese fourth seed Li Na is also through to the last four after a comfortable 6-3 6-1 win over Hungarian Greta Arn.

source: cnn.com