Making a quick turnaround from Friday night’s three-set quarterfinal win over Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal was out on the practice court on Saturday morning ahead of his date with Tomas Berdych. Nadal, on the Grandstand, mainly worked on his serve with Francisco Roig.
Up first for semifinal action was a rematch of the Washington, D.C. title match between Juan Martin Del Potro and John Isner. This was another unbelievable win for Isner, who had upset Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals. It obviously wasn’t as “big” given that Djokovic is the No. 1 player in the world, but this one arguably came in even more shocking fashion. Del Potro took the first set by earning the tiebreaker’s only mini-break at 6-5 and he soon found himself serving for the match at 5-3 in the second after seizing the match’s first service break at 4-3. The Argentine even had a match point on his own serve, but terrible sun on his side of the court may have contributed to a wild double-fault that missed the court by several feet. Isner eventually broke with an amazing backhand pass. From there Del Potro was never the same, although he did well to come back from mini-breaks five different times in the second-set tiebreaker before Isner finally won it. Del Potro labored throughout the third with an apparent back injury and a quick break at 1-0 was enough for Isner.
A doubles semifinal was taking place on the Grandstand and it seemed like Marc Lopez and Marcel Granollers took a cue from the Stadium that Nadal, their friend and countryman, was about to start. Right after Isner finished off Del Potro, Granollers and Lopez broke Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin for a 5-2 lead in the second set. Lopez served it out one game later to finish just in time to watch Nadal (they were eventually seen at the match).
Nadal capped off a great day for both Spaniards and Americans. In fact, both men’s finals on Sunday will be Spain vs. USA (Nadal vs. Isner and Granollers-Lopez vs. Bob and Mike Bryan). The world No. 3 improved to 15-3 lifetime against Berdych, including 14-0 in their last 14 with a 7-5, 7-6(4) victory. Nadal’s work with Roig did not exactly pay off in the second set as he double-faulted a whopping six times after having no such blunders in the first. Still, as has been the case in their meetings over the last six years, Nadal had too much game from the baseline for Berdych.
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