Few players have beaten Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the same year.  Andy Murray pulled the feat this year at Toronto.  Nikolay Davydenko did it in Doha at the start of the year.  Both these guys are in the top 10.

But add Marcos Baghdatis to that list of names.  Back in Indian Wells, Federer had match points on Baghdatis but let him back in the match, and lost in three sets.  Baghdatis pulled the feat off today, knocking off world number 1, Rafael Nadal in three sets.

Baghdatis was taking advantage of Nadal’s rusty play which seems an extension of how he played back in Toronto.  Nadal was spraying shots long, and having a tough time returning shots to his backhand, preferring to slice rather than hit the two-hander.  Meanwhile, Baghdatis was serving pretty big and basically holding serve well, though he did get into trouble and had to bail himself out.

Baghdatis broke immediately in the second set, but was broken back in the next game.  The two held serve until 5-4 when Nadal got to double-break point and eventually took the set, 6-4.

The third set saw both players hold serve until 4-all.  Nadal was serving up 30-0 but Baghdatis comes back.  Twice Nadal approached the net, and twice Baghdatis won the point to get to 30-40 and then, uncharacteristically, Nadal double-faulted to lose his serve.  Baghdatis went up 40-0 on his serve, but Nadal took 2 points, then Baghdatis won the final point to complete the upset.

It’s rare that Nadal and Federer are on the same side of the draw.  The last time this happened was in Rome when Federer was seeded 1 and Nadal was seeded 3.  Federer lost to Gulbis (who beat Baghdatis in the first round) in the second round, so the two were never close to meeting.  In all other occasions, Federer and Nadal have ended on opposite halves of the draw.

Nadal’s game has not been very good lately, so this would be one of the rare occasions that Federer would have been favored to beat Nadal, even though hardcourts generally favor Federer.  The two haven’t played in the US since Miami in 2005, a match Federer won in five sets.  Indeed, their only other meeting on American soil was their first meeting in 2004 when Nadal upset Federer also in Miami.

Nadal has never been past the semifinals of Cincinnati.  Baghdatis had never beaten Nadal.  Now he has.

Meanwhile, Federer continued his mastery of Davydenko.  Davydenko is beginning to regain his form.  This lead to some lengthy rallies between Federer and Davydenko.  However, Federer won a tight match, 6-4, 7-5 to become the only seed in the top 4 to make it to the semifinals.  Every other quarterfinal had the lower seed beating the upper one.  The only big surprise was Nadal losing to Baghdatis and even then it wasn’t so surprising because Baghdatis was playing well (having beaten Berdych) and Nadal was still shaky.

And for Baghdatis, what a difference a year makes.  A year ago, Baghdatis out of the top 100 and lost in the first round of qualifying to Robert Kendrick.  He’s now climbed into the top 20 (at 20) and looks to move up with his semifinal appearance.

Tomorrow, Mardy Fish takes on Andy Roddick at 2 PM in one semifinals.  Fish is on a roll.  Since Wimbledon, he won Newport, he won Atlanta, he won 1 match and lost 1 match in DC, and now he’s in the semifinals of Cincinnati.  This means 15 wins and 1 loss.  He also reached the finals of Queen’s.  This stretch has been Mardy’s best tennis perhaps ever.

Having said that Roddick does have a tremendous head-to-head over Mardy Fish leading 9-2.  However, Fish did win their last encounter.  Roddick will want to have a meaningful win here to reach his third Masters 1000 final on hardcourts allowing him to peak about when he expected.

In the other semifinals, played in the evening, Roger Federer plays Marcos Baghdatis.  Federer leads the head-to-head 6-1 with three wins in Slams including the 2005 Australian Open finals.  Federer is eager to defend his title at Cincy because it would guarantee a second seed at the US Open.  With all of his main rivals pretty much out, he knows his chances are better than ever to do so.  Federer also had an easier time winning and looked to be striking the ball well while Baghdatis had to play three long sets to get to this point.

The semis may not be fully what the organizers had hoped for, but two Americans in the semis is as good as they could hope given only one of the top 4 seeds made it to the semifinals (possibly better).