By the time the rains delayed the semi-finals at the Rogers Cup on Saturday, all of the top seeds, with the exception of Rafael Nadal, had already been washed away.Once the weather cleared, Nadal was on his way to the final, after defeating ninth-ranked Andy Murray, 7-6 (2), 6-3, to run his winning streak to 28 straight matches. Nadal, who won the Rogers Cup in 2005, will face Nicolas Kiefer, who defeated Gilles Simon, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (5), in a three-hour semi-final. Murray was the highest-ranked player remaining in the tournament after No. 2 Nadal. He gave Nadal some trouble early, but ultimately was no match for him.Murray held serve in the first set, leading to a tie breaker. But his serve faltered and he lost the tie breaker, 7-2, on a double fault.In the second set, Nadal twice broke Murray, who struggled with 20 unforced errors. “He’s definitely doing a lot of things better than he was in the past,” Murray said of Nadal. “I just think the way he moves and returns on the quicker courts is much better than it was before.” Nadal’s matches aside, this has been an unpredictable week.On Friday, Murray defeated third-ranked Novak Djokovic, last year’s Rogers Cup winner. In the second round Wednesday, Simon upset No. 1 Roger Federer.But Kiefer, who entered the tournament ranked 37th, has been the biggest surprise. He has not won a tournament since 2000, and has battled injuries. “When I was young I was going more for finals or for titles and now it’s most important for me to be healthy,” Kiefer said. “Just every day I wake up and I feel good and I can compete.”Whether he can compete against Nadal is another question. “To play against the best in the world, whether it’s Roger or it’s Rafa, it’s never easy,” Kiefer said. “But you try to compete and you try to do your best.”
