Spraying balls all over the place, an erratic Rafael Nadal was beaten by unseeded Marcos Baghdatis 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Masters Friday. The top-ranked and top-seeded Nadal committed 30 unforced errors in the first two sets and double-faulted on break point in the ninth game of the third set, allowing the 20th-ranked Cypriot to serve for the match. He clinched his first win in seven matches against Nadal when the Spaniard fired a forehand into the net for his 35th unforced error of the match. “I took chances,” Baghdatis said of finally beating Nadal. “Other times, I had chances and didn't take them.” Baghdatis, who finished with 18 aces to Nadal's four and committed only 22 unforced errors, considered his serves more crucial than Nadal's miscues. “I served pretty big tonight,” Baghdatis said. “It was much better. I was more aggressive. I knew Rafa wasn't going to give me the match, so I had to go and take it.” Nadal blamed most of his problems on a balky backhand. “My game can improve, that's for sure,” he said. “I have to keep working to improve my confidence with the backhand. My feeling with the forehand is good, but I still had too many unforced errors. For a lot of reasons, I played badly at important moments.” Earlier Friday, fourth-seeded Andy Murray, playing his eighth afternoon match in 10 days, lost to unseeded Mardy Fish 6-7 (7), 6-1, 7-6 (5) in a match that lasted 2 hours, 56 minutes – the tournament's longest – on a court where the temperature reached the high 30s (an even 100 degrees). Fish will meet Andy Roddick in the tournament's first all-American semifinal since Roddick lost to Andre Agassi in 2004. The ninth-seeded Roddick eliminated No. 2 Novak Djokovic 6-4, 7-5 on Friday. Defending-champion Roger Federer finally played a full match, knocking off sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 7-5. The third-seeded Federer, a three-time champion, played just seven games in his first match before Denis Istomin retired with an ankle injury. His next opponent, Philipp Kohlschreiber, withdrew with a shoulder injury before the match. “I just played a very bad match,” Djokovic said. “Every time I needed to play well, I made mistakes, especially on my forehand side. He was getting a lot of balls back – not doing anything special, just making me play extra shots.” “Novak probably didn't play his best match,” Roddick said. “He was missing balls he normally wouldn't miss. I probably would expect him to play a little better.” Clijsters out Russian eighth seed Vera Zvonareva upset US Open champion Kim Clijsters 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the two million dollar Rogers Cup Friday. Zvonareva advanced to the semifinals where she will face Victoria Azarenka who beat France's Marion Bartoli 6-2, 7-6 (8-6) in the late match. The fifth-seeded Clijsters took a six-minute medical break where she was visited by a trainer for an apparent left thigh injury. She returned with her thigh wrapped and finished the third set. “I don't like to give up,” Clijsters said. “If something really bad happens, if you twist your ankle. But I was still able to move, still able to hit the ball, so I don't believe in giving up.” Clijsters was coming off a win last week in Cincinnati. Combined with a win at Miami earlier this year, she had won 13 consecutive matches on hardcourts. Clijsters dominated the opening set. In other matches, Svetlana Kuznetsova reached the semifinals with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over unseeded Zheng Jie of China and Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki beat Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-3, 6
