Today, 3 of the 4 quarterfinalists were Spaniards.  On the one hand, there was Rafael Nadal against Nicolas Almagro.  Almagro’s a hard hitter, but Rafa’s battled with hard hitters and does a great job moving his opponents around.   Add to that, he’s never beaten Rafa.  Rafa’s played and beaten many a hard hitter including Berdych, Soderling, Tsonga, and Federer.  He knows how to buy himself time and then pressure his opponents.

So even though Almagro won more games against Rafa than anyone else, he still couldn’t snag a set.  Score: 76 62 63.

Although Murray was the higher seed and had been further in the French Open than David Ferrer, it was the lower ranked Ferrer that was favored to win the match.  Not only had Ferrer never lost to Murray on clay, but he’s been having almost as dominating a French Open as Rafa.  Of course, Murray is no slouch.  He pressed Ferrer by winning the second set in a tiebreak after Ferrer won the first 64.

Shortly into the third set, it rained, and the players were called off.  Upon returning, Murray, who had some momentum built up, wasn’t quite ready to take on Ferrer as the stout Spaniard got ahead of the inconsistent Scot.  While Murray was able to engineer breaks, he couldn’t make the break hold.  Ferrer got ahead in both sets and took it 63, 62.

The men get the day off tomorrow and will play semis on Friday.  The more intriguing of the matches will be Djokovic against Federer.  Can Fed pull the upset two years in a row?  I think Ferrer has an outside shot of pushing Nadal.  He has had some luck playing him in Slams and is playing his best tennis.  The downside is Nadal is also playing some of his best tennis, and when that’s happened he’s been hard to stop.