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Nadal bounces back to beat Fish

04/09/2008

Rafael Nadal was forced to come from a set down against American Mardy Fish but won through to set up a US Open semi-final against Andy Murray.

The top-seeded Spaniard dropped the first set and looked to be struggling early on.

But he bounced back in fine style to seal a 3-6 6-1 6-4 6-2 victory to make it through to the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows for the first time.

Nadal's previous best performance at the New York grand slam was a quarter-final appearance in 2006, when he lost in four sets to Russia's Mikhail Youzhny.

However, he put that experience behind him to dominate his opponent - despite facing a partisan home crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

A lacklustre first set was quickly forgotten as some crushing groundstrokes and remarkable court coverage earned Nadal the second set in little over half an hour.

And despite seeing the match go on until around 02:00 local time, Nadal never looked hurried and comfortably closed out the match.

With the crucial semi-final looming, Nadal and Murray have already met once on a North American hard court - when the Spaniard brushed aside the Briton in straight sets at the semi-final stage of the Canadian Masters in July.

However, the 21-year-old Scot appears to be growing as a player and will enter the match against Nadal on Friday in the form of his career - having reached at least the quarter-finals of the last four tournaments he has played, with the exception of the Olympics last month.

That run included a Wimbledon quarter-final - where he also lost to eventual winner Nadal - and a tournament victory at the Cincinnati Masters.