The semifinals had to be all the tournament organizers could hope for.  Federer, Djokovic, Berdych, and del Potro all made the semis as if they had a plane to catch.  They won efficiently.  That left the semis.

On one half, there was 3-time champ, Novak Djokovic facing Juan Martin del Potro. On the other, there was Federer against Berdych.  The second was the tougher match because Berdych has had good success beating Federer, most notably at the US Open quarterfinals.

Berdych’s confidence playing Federer has grown.  He believes he can hang in there with Federer, and this confidence allows Berdych to stay positive even when things don’t look great.

Federer took control of the first set with a break in the middle.  In the second set, Berdych claimed a break lead, then almost had two breaks, but then got broken back.  The second set went to a tiebreak where Berdych claimed an early mini-break, but then found himself down 6-4, two match points.  He saved both and saved the 8-7 match point before winning on an aggressive return 10-8.

This pushed the match into a third set where Berdych got a break in the middle of the set, and never looked back.

Although Federer leads the head-to-head 11-5, four of Berdych’s wins have come in the last 7 matches where they have split about evenly.  Federer has to be concerned that players like Berdych (most notably Tsonga) can give him trouble beyond the players that normally given him trouble (Nadal, Djokovic, Murray).

In the other semi, Djokovic started off in fine form and took the first set, 6-3.  In the second set, del Potro got up a break early, but during a critical 30-40 point, he was called for a time violation warning, and this disrupted his concentration.  Djokovic broke back then lead a break before del Potro managed to break back and force a tiebreak.  However, Djokovic was too good and won the tiebreak, 7-4.

Acapulco

The third tournament for Nadal since he came back on tour was a semifinal encounter with Nicolas Almagro.  Almagro has never beaten Nadal, and he wasn’t about to this time as well, winning 75 64.

Ferrer had more trouble against Fognini who took a set, but Ferrer came back strong in the third set, and won 63 67 61.

Delray Beach

The men finished quarterfinal action on Friday.  Isner beat Anderson in straight sets.  Roger-Vasselin over Berankis in straight sets.  Gulbis over Munoz-de la Nava in straight sets.  Haas needed 3 sets to beat Ivan Dodig.