| GEO Sports | World's top four enter Rogers Cup semi-finals | Updated at: 1142 PST, Saturday, August 14, 2010
 TORONTO: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic all posted quarter-final wins to join Andy Murray in the semi-finals of the Rogers Cup in Toronto.
World number one Nadal recovered from dropping the first set to beat Phillipp Kohlschreiber 3-6 6-3 6-4.
Federer avenged his Wimbledon quarter-finals loss to Czech Tomas Berdych with a 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7-5) victory.
Djokovic, the world number two, eased into the last four with a 6-3 6-2 win over France's Jeremy Chardy.
Nadal was made to work for his seventh career win over German world number 37 Kohlschreiber after making a faltering start.
But having lost the first set, he drew level in the second set and gained the upper hand in the third with a break in the seventh game.
Towards the end of the match, his superiority was borne out as he won 10 points in a row to secure his 50th match win of the year, passing that milestone for the sixth consecutive season.
"Every match is tough and he's a good player, he's difficult to beat," said Nadal. "Today I started terrible [but] it's a good victory for me because I finished the match playing better."
The Spaniard now faces Murray for a place in the final after the Briton's 6-2 6-2 win against David Nalbandian, and he added: "He's playing well and it will be very difficult. Playing against him is always a challenge."
Federer had lost to Berdych twice this season, and the Czech looked determined to add to that tally as levelled the match and then took a 5-2 lead in the third set.
But a relentless Federer refused to fold, finally getting the break he needed with Berdych serving for the match at 5-3.
A pulsating tiebreak then saw Federer jump ahead 4-0 then grimly hang to clinch the victory 7-5 when Berdych sent a return into the net.
"It's sort of hard to put a rank on it, but it's nice always winning matches 7-6 in the third," Federer said afterwards.
"I had a good start, had chances in the second and then it was just kind of one of those matches I thought was going to slip away again like at the beginning of the season.
"But I was able to turn it around. It was definitely huge at this point."
Federer now faces Djokovic, the Rogers Cup champion in 2007, who will be relatively fresh after his easiest match of the week against Chardy. |  | | | |
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