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Cincinnati win ensures Nadal number one spot

02/08/2008

Rafael Nadal has beaten Nicolas Lapentti in the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Masters and, with that victory, guaranteed himself the position of world number one.

The Spaniard will now move ahead of Roger Federer on August 18th at the latest after the Swiss lost to Ivo Karlovic in the third round of the Masters event this week.

Federer has been on top for four-and-a-half years but Nadal could topple him even sooner if he goes on to win the tournament.

The Wimbledon champion rarely looked in trouble against Lapentti, taking the first set on a tie-break he went on to break his opponent twice in the second set to win 7-6 7/3 6-1.

Nadal has spent 235 weeks behind Federer as number two in the world and admitted that moving ahead of the Swiss was "very emotional".

He added: "I am very happy but at the same time, my goal is continuing [to] be there."

Nadal will now face world number three Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals after the Serbian beat Latvia's Ernests Gulbis 6-3 6-4 in his quarter-final.

Djokovic has lost twice recently to Nadal, though both those defeats came on clay where the Spaniard is able to dominate most players, and will be hoping to make amends in the semi-final.

The Serbian has failed to produce consistent results since winning his first grand slam event in Australia at the start of the year. Nadal, by contrast, is currently on a 32-match unbeaten streak.

Andy Murray's opponent in the other semi-final will be Karlovic, who continued his excellent run in the tournament with a 7-6 8/6 7-6 7/3 win over German Philipp Kohlschreiber.