CINCINATTI // His 33rd consecutive victory has ensured that it is now only a question of when Rafael Nadal will usurp Roger Federer as the world No 1 in the rankings. The Spaniard's quarter-final win over Nicolas Lapentti on Friday meant that before the end of August he will leapfrog Federer in the standings, thus ending the Swiss player's four-and-a-half-year reign at the top of the standings.
If Nadal wins the event in Cincinatti he will be No 1 tomorrow. If he gets to the final, but loses, he will take over at the top on Aug 11, while if he was beaten in last night's semi-finals he will have to wait until August 18 to move above Federer, due to the complex ranking points system. Federer's shock last 16 exit to Ivo Karlovic had opened the door for Nadal, and the French Open and Wimbledon champion maintained his great recent form to take advantage of the opportunity.
He defeated Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti 7-6, 6-1 to secure his passage into the last four and ensure that he follows Carlos Moya and Juan Carlos Ferrero in becoming only the third Spaniard to top the world rankings. Nadal said of his achievement: "I am happy because I have been fighting a lot these last three years, although I was happy as number two as I won a lot of tournaments. "But for sure, number one is a goal and I am very happy."
Nadal was scheduled to face the No 3 seed Novak Djokovic for a place in tonight's final. The Serbian continued his good form as he looks to bounce back from his early exits at Wimbledon and Toronto as he battled past the unseeded Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-3, 6-4 and Nadal knows he will need to play better to advance. Britain's Andy Murray is also into the last four, although he made hard work of getting there as he defeated Carlos Moya 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.
The No 8 seed had seemed to be on his way out of the tournament when he lost the first set , and then went a break down in the second set as Moya dominated. But Murray rallied bravely as he broke twice to win the second set, and then charged through the third set to ensure his second semi-final spot in successive weeks. And Murray's reward was a semi-final clash with Karlovic. The Croatian, maintained his form that had proven too good for Federer as he defeated the German Philipp Kohlschreiber with a 7-6, 7-6 victory.
* Reuters
