World number one Rafael Nadal and fourth seed Andy Murray bagged two wins apiece on Friday to set up a mouth-watering Monte Carlo Masters semifinal. Nadal, gunning for his fifth consecutive title in the principality, swept past Croatian Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 6-3 in his quarterfinal while Murray battled past Russian eighth seed Nikolay Davydenko 7-6, 6-4. Both had to contest two matches on Friday after rain wiped out most of the day's play on Thursday. It was not the case for world number three Novak Djokovic, who floored high-flying Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to book his place in the last four against 13th seed Stanislas Wawrinka. The Swiss made light work of German qualifier Andreas Beck with a 6-2, 6-4 win. Nadal made mincemeat of Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti 6-3, 6-0 at lunchtime in a third-round match before taking on the big-serving Ljubicic around tea time. Murray finished his third-round match against Italian qualifier Fabio Fognini, whom he beat 7-6, 6-4, and ended Davydenko's resilience under the floodlights. Facing a two-time French Open semifinalist in Davydenko, Murray showed great composure to take the tiebreak 7-1 before rallying from 4-1 down in the second set. The 21-year-old Scot, who reached his first semifinal in a claycourt tournament, won on his third match point when Davydenko returned long. Nadal showed signs of irritation when Ljubicic, a 7-5 7-6 winner against Italian Simone Bolelli earlier on Friday, canceled out his early break. He stayed focused, however, to break again and claim the opening set, keeping the pressure on Ljubicic to wrap up the win in 73 minutes. Although he only had one match to play, Djokovic had to battle for two hours and 18 minutes against Australian Open semifinalist Verdasco. The Spaniard, however, was undone by Djokovic's unerring accuracy in a gripping tussle. Dementieva in semis In South Carolina, top seed Elena Dementieva reached the semifinals of the Family Circle Cup on Friday when Dominika Cibulkova retired in the second set because of a left thigh strain. The Russian, who had lost only four games in her two previous matches, was leading 6-4, 1-0 in the quarterfinal when the seventh-seeded Slovakian retired. Olympic champion Dementieva will next meet Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who beat Virginie Razzano of France 6-2, 6-0. Sabine Lisicki of Germany continued with her dream run when she beat Elena Vesnina of Russia 6-4, 6-0. Lisicki will play the winner of the quarterfinal between Marion Bartoli of France and Melinda Czink of Hungary. Schiavone, Vinci in semis In Spain, Francesca Schiavone of Italy defeated Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 Friday to reach the semifinals of the Barcelona Open. Roberta Vinci of Italy also advanced after beating Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus 6-3, 6-3 before rain suspended play for the day. Sixth-seeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia led 6-1, 1-2 against Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain when play on the clay court was called off. The match will resume Saturday, followed by fifth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain taking on Germany's Tatjana Malek in the last quarterfinal.
