MELBOURNE: Rafa Nadal's dream of winning four Grand Slam titles in a row ended with a whimper Wednesday when his body failed him at the quarterfinal stage of the Australian Open for the second successive year. The record books will show the 24-year-old lost 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 to fellow Spaniard David Ferrer on Rod Laver Arena but the injury the world No. 1 suffered in the third game rendered the match a no contest for most of its 153-minute duration. A rather apologetic Ferrer advanced to only his second grand slam semifinal where he will face British world No. 5 Andy Murray who ended the run of Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov, albeit not without some tricky moments. Kim Clijsters remains favorite to win her first Australian Open after beating Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 7-6 although Russia's Vera Zvonareva, hunting a first major, will provide a tough semifinal opponent after she beat Petra Kvitova 6-2, 6-4. Clearly hampered by what looked like a hamstring injury and with tears welling in his eyes at one stage, top seed Nadal still displayed champion qualities by refusing to retire when he was cannon-fodder for Ferrer. “I hate retiring,” he told reporters – declining to go into detail about what had gone wrong. “I can say nothing about the injury,” Nadal said. “First of all, I know nothing. Second thing, for respect to the winner and to a friend, I prefer to talk about the match. “It's a difficult day for me. I lost in quarterfinals another time. So I tried my best. I couldn't do more.” Nadal had not lost a grand slam match since hobbling out of Melbourne Park when his knees gave up on him in his last eight contest against Murray a year ago to the day. The Mallorcan stormed back from that disappointment to win the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open titles and returned to Australia with an eye on matching Don Budge (1938) and Rod Laver (1962, 1969) in holding all four major titles at once. “In a tennis career, you have higher moments and lower moments,” the nine-time grand slam champion said. “I have had almost all the time very, very happy moments and very nice moments in my career. “It's part of the sport. Accept, keep working, try my best in the next tournament. That's what I can do.” Ferrer said he did not consider it a real victory. “It was not easy because Rafa is a gentleman and he played with an injury as we are friendly,” said the seventh seed, who reached his second grand slam semifinal and the first since the 2007 US Open when he beat Nadal in the last 16. “I fought a lot but for him with the injury it was not easy.” Murray, who lost the final here last year and would have been gearing up for a Nadal semi, was shaken but not stirred by swashbuckling Melbourne Park debutant Dolgopolov as he came though a tricky test 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. Murray, who counts James Bond actor and fellow Scot Sean Connery among his fans, had been in intimidating form all week and continued in similar fashion to race to two sets and a break up against the “hit or miss” Dolgopolov. The world No. 46, however, suddenly found the touch and consistency that saw him upset Robin Soderling in the fourth round to break back and force a third set tiebreak, which Murray conspired to lose 7-3 with a string of errors. Dolgopolov could not keep up the pace, though, and Murray won 14 points in a row at the start of the fourth set which sped by in 32 minutes as he kept alive his hopes of ending Britain's 75-year wait for a men's grand slam champion. Henin retires again Former women's world No.1 Justine Henin of Belgium retired for the second time Wednesday, citing a recurrent elbow problem, Belgian daily Le Soir reported. “Today, the (medical) examinations are clear and the doctors are agreed that my elbow is too damaged for me to be able continuing with my passion and my job at a high level,” Henin said in a letter published by Le Soir from her internet site. Henin, 28, first laid down her racket in May 2008 having won seven Grand Slam singles titles, including four French Open titles, one Australian Open title, and two US Open titles.
