The last two semifinalists were decided today.  Robin Soderling again makes it to the semifinals as he did back in Indian Wells.  He played a familiar opponent, Mikhail Youzhny, who he beat back in Rotterdam.  Youzhny was unable to complete that match, but he did complete this one, losing 6-1, 6-4.

Tomas Berdych had to work hard to win his match over hard hitting Fernando Verdasco.  The score was 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4.

The quarterfinals went according to head-to-head, with the exception being the Roddick match, since Roddick had never played Almagro before.  Roddick has fared well against many Spaniards not named Nadal, most notably, Tommy Robredo.

The semifinals will be played Friday.  At 1 PM, Nadal takes on Roddick.  Nadal has a reasonable head-to-head lead over Roddick and Nadal is playing well.  He leads the head-to-head 5-2, including the last 3 times they’ve met.  The last time they met was Indian Wells in 2009, a match Rafa won 6-4, 7-6.  In general, Roddick plays Rafa pretty close, which makes sense given Roddick’s high first serve percentage.  This will be the first time they’ve met with Stefanki having coached Roddick more than a few months.  It will be interesting to see what Roddick does.  He’s gotten fitter, but Rafa is playing more aggressively at Miami.  Will Roddick play his usual steady style, or will he have a “Rafa” strategy, a la Andy Murray.  Personally, I think he opts for the first.  If he tries to take the game to Rafa, he needs his inside out forehand to be working well.

Soderling has 4-2 lead over Berdych, including the last two times they’ve met.   Although Berdych’s name seems to have been around forever, Soderling is a little older than Berdych.  Soderling has lost to Berdych on clay and once on hard courts back in 2005 in Rotterdam.

They play the early evening match at 7 PM.

Based on head-to-head, Soderling would play Nadal in the finals.  Nadal has been on a tournament drought for a while.  His last title was Rome.  He’s reached a few finals since then, so he’s not playing awfully, but it is a little surprising how long it’s been for him since his last title.

Meanwhile, Roddick last title was Brisbane where he beat Radek Stepanek.  He’s been to two finals this year, San Jose and Indian Wells.

Robin Soderling won Rotterdam earlier this year over Youzhny.  Tomas Berdych’s last title was Munich on clay last year.  Berdych wins about a title a year.