Federer went out of the Masters Cup on Friday with a 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 defeat by Murray - his fourth in six meetings with the Scot.

But with the Australian Open just two months away, Federer said the world’s top two had the edge in experience.

“At the moment it’s Rafa and myself,” said the Swiss.

“I really still feel it’s that way because we’ve played big events on so many occasions. I mean, we still have to play a few more Grand Slam finals.

“If that’s the case, I’m very happy from my side.”Federer, who beat Murray to win the US Open in September, was suffering the effects of a back injury and a stomach bug as he lost to Murray in Shanghai.

“Of course I’m disappointed,” said the 27-year-old. “I wish I could have played the matches I played here under better circumstances, but I tried.

“I almost made a miracle happen. I can’t believe how close I got, to be honest. So I’m actually very happy.”

Next up for Nadal, champion in Spain in 2005, will be 15th-ranked Richard Gasquet after the Frenchman overcame 23 aces by American Mardy Fish to win 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-3.

“I’m probably playing with less pressure than usual so whatever happens, things are good,” said Nadal, who has a slight nag in his right leg despite three weeks of rest.

Nadal received a four-set test from Gulbis en route to the Wimbledon title, and yesterday’s match was similarly troubling for the Spaniard. But Gulbis often followed a crisp winner with an unforced error.
Nadal, who has never been a fan of the Spanish capital’s high altitude and the extra speed it brings to the hard court, had trouble keeping up with the Latvian as he stuck his shots down the line to break for 2-0 in the second.

A ragged Nadal eventually netted to force a deciding set in the mainly baseline contest.

“He played very well in the second set but all the match was very tough because he played very aggressive,” Nadal said.

“I’m delighted to be in my first Slam final,” Murray said. “I’m delighted I won against a guy who has played as well as him. He is the best player in the world this year. He has played great tennis.”

The showdown with 12-time Grand Slam champion Federer was pushed to Monday, the first time since 1987 that bad weather has postponed the year’s last Grand Slam tournament to an extra day.

Murray became only the third British man to reach a Slam final in the 40-year Open era, after Greg Rusedski in the 1997 US Open and John Lloyd at the 1977 Australian Open, and would be the first to win a title by beating Federer.

“He’s probably the greatest player ever,” Murray said of Federer. “To get the chance to play against him in a Slam final is an honor. I’ve played well against him in the past. Hopefully I can do the same again.”

Murray owns a 2-1 lead over Federer in their career rivalry, losing their first meeting 6-3, 7-5 at the 2005 Bangkok final but winning 7-5, 6-4 at Cincinnati in 2006 and 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-4 in Dubai six months ago.

Nadal carried a 19-match Slam win streak into his first US Open semi-final against a foe he had beaten in all five of their prior meetings, taking 11 sets in a row off Murray before Saturday.

Sixth seed Murray will rise to fourth in the next rankings, matching Tim Henman and Rusedski for the top ranking ever achieved by a British man.

Murray slept on a two-set lead but was down a break at 2-3 in the third set with Nadal serving when play resumed at Arthur Ashe Stadium after a delay of about 26 hours from Saturday’s stoppage at adjacent Louis Armstrong Stadium.

“Obviously tough to sleep on it but I’m very glad I came through in the end,” Murray said.

“There were a lot of things I had to deal with, change of court, change of conditions, different atmosphere. I just had to stay calm. I was playing well enough to win but I knew Nadal was going to come at me.”

Nadal held serve three more times to take the third set 27 minutes after the resumption, although he was pushed to a break point by Murray in the last game of the set before blasting three forehand winners to force a fourth set.

“I saw the match for sure was not impossible,” Nadal said. “I was feeling better. He had some mistakes.”

Rafael Nadal returned a shot during a match against Mardy Fish.

Against Rafael Nadal, though, that game plan lasted for exactly one set.

Nadal absorbed his first-set loss and quickly restored order, winning his quarterfinal match, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2, as it stretched into the wee hours of Thursday morning thanks to a long day of action at the Open. By the time they left the court at 2:11 a.m. — the third-latest finish ever at the Open — there were a few thousand holdouts left in Arthur Ashe Stadium. Most were still rooting for Fish, an American making his deepest run at the Open, to pull the upset until the very end.

But the man known on tour as Rafa thanked them for staying so late nonetheless.

“The night session here is unbelievable, but I prefer to finish a little earlier,” Nadal said.

It was only one defeat, and a logical one for anyone who saw the size of the open blisters on Nadal’s right foot that looked ugly even by tennis standards and required treatment midway through the second set. Understandable, too, when you consider that Nadal had already played and won back-to-back clay-court tournaments that matter in Monte Carlo and Barcelona and had sounded none too content at the prospect of having to play two more weeks in a row on clay.

But Nadal has hustled and muscled his way through greater adversity in the past on his favorite surface, and now the French Open, which begins in two weeks, looks a bit more intriguing.

For Nadal, one of the most positive-minded competitors in any sport, it has been a grumpy period, with the Spaniard leveling public criticism at the structure of the clay-court calendar, at the men’s tour chief, Etienne de Villiers, and at the Spanish Tennis Federation president, Pedro Muñoz, over the federation’s consideration of Madrid as a site for the Davis Cup semifinal against the United States in September. (Nadal and his teammates think the moderate altitude would help Andy Roddick and the Americans, even on clay.)

But the altitude at Roland Garros remains negligible. No matter who wins the Masters Series event in Rome on Sunday - and it won’t be Roger Federer - Nadal deserves to be the favorite to win his fourth consecutive title in Paris. The unexpected respite he is getting now could even help him arrive at Roland Garros feeling fresher and quicker than if he had slogged his way to yet another final or title in Rome.

Rafael Nadal’s rivals have been relieved to see that the new look has spread to the tournament draw. The world No 2, winner for the last three years, went out on Wednesday, which means that this will be the first clay-court Grand Slam or Masters Series event that Nadal has started and not reached the final of since Hamburg in 2003.

Roger Federer will be hoping to take advantage, the Swiss having lost to his great rival in seven of their eight meetings on clay. Federer has looked in good form in his two matches here and moved into the quarter-finals yesterday with a victory over Ivo Karlovic that was more comfortable than the 7-6, 6-3 scoreline might suggest.

“It’s going to be a tough one,” Roddick said.

Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Britain’s Andy Murray also reached the quarter-finals.

Djokovic advanced with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over Fabrice Santoro of France, who won their last match at the Paris Masters.

“I started losing my hair in the second set,” Djokovic said. “But it was OK, you know, to play such a magician with a racket. He’s a very special player and for me it was an honour to play again against him.”

Djokovic will face Igor Andreev of Russia, who defeated Richard Gasquet of France 6-3, 6-4.

The second-ranked Nadal cruised past Mikhail Ledovskikh of Russia 6-4, 6-0, while Murray defeated Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5).

“Today, I didn’t know this player, but he has a very good potential,” Nadal said of his 171st-ranked opponent.

Murray, who stopped top-ranked Roger Federer on Monday in the first round, led 6-2 in the third-set tiebreaker but needed four match points to win. Verdasco finally hit the ball long after a lengthy rally.

“It was a pretty ugly point, actually,” Murray said. “I was just making sure I kept the ball in play, because I think he’s the sort of guy if you can make a lot of balls against him, keep him in the back of the court, he can get a bit impatient, and luckily he missed one at the end.”

Murray said he had to overcome a sore knee in the second set and gusty wind.

Federer, who lost to Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals, retains the rankings leadership 650 points clear of Nadal who could have deposed him had he won in Melbourne.

The biggest mover among the top players was made by losing finalist in Melbourne Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France who climbs 20 places to 18th while the man he beat in the fourth round, Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, is up six to a career-best eighth.

The Barcelona-bound Nadal could only get a business-class seat as far as Singapore and was facing being pushed to the back of the plane for the connecting journey to Frankfurt.

The triple French Open champion was placed on waiting lists with both Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines for the flight out of the city state.

“The business class is full out of Singapore. He has a business-class ticket out (but) he is only in economy,” Nadal’s agent said.

Nadal’s travelling frustrations came less than 24 hours after the 21-year-old admitted he’d been powerless to stop Tsonga in a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 semi-final defeat at Rod Laver Arena.

The world No. 2 had stormed through his opening five matches without dropping a set. But his campaign was suddenly over in a blur in less than two hours.