The top four seeds have made their way into the Tokyo semifinals with the expected final showdown between Nadal and Murray.

In the first match of the day, Mardy Fish took on Bernard Tomic.  Although Tomic is fairly talented, he still struggles with errors and this may be because he plays relatively few tournaments, especially at the Challenger level.  Donald Young may not have lived up to his early hype, but he grinded through years of Challengers and that toughened him up.  He may still make silly errors, but they’re more reasonable than they used to be.  Grinding it out teaches you to balance aggression with steadiness.

Tomic did take the first set in a tiebreak in a set that was pretty close and probably a bit nervous for both players.  Fish, however, is the one that’s been having the great year, and perhaps the first set loss woke him up as he took the second set 6-4 then easily won the third set, 6-1 as Tomic seemed to lose focus.

Fish, much like Andy Roddick, has switched to short socks which he claims helps him move faster, though it’s probably just a placebo.

Nadal’s match against Giraldo was surprisingly tough.  Giraldo has a huge forehand and was willing to trade blows with Nadal.  The first set went to a tiebreak, one that Nadal ultimately won, but not without a struggle.  The second set was a bit easier as Nadal found his range more.  Final score: 7-6, 6-3.

David Ferrer continues to show that he’s a versatile number 5, able to win on hard courts as well as clay.  He defeated the wily veteran, Radek Stepanek 6-2, 7-6.

Andy Murray exchanged four breaks of serve at the end of the second set, but was able to clinch the straight set win over David Nalbandian, 6-4, 7-5.

The semis in Tokyo are set with Nadal playing Fish and Murray playing Ferrer.

In Beijing, Tsonga had a comfortable win over Juan Carlos Ferrero, 6-3, 6-4.  Berdych pummeled Verdasco, 6-1, 6-0.  Ljubicic needed 3 sets to beat Youzhny 7-6, 6-7, 6-2 in a nice win for the Croatian veteran.  Cilic beat South African Anderson in 3 sets 7-6, 4-6, 6-1.  The semifinals are Tsonga vs. Berdych which could be filled with a lot of heavy hitting and Ljubicic taking on Cilic.