At the end of the second, Kuznetsova summoned her coach Stefan Ortega. “He told me to go back to what I was doing in the first set,” she said. “I’d stopped doing it in the second, but he told me to just vary my game. I think if I hadn't talked to him I would have hit the ball harder and gone for winners more quickly.” The outcome was a reversal of Kuznetsova’s dwindling fortunes, and she ran out a 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 winner to end Swiss interest in the Zurich Open.

The win sets up Kuznetsova for a semifinal against Daniela Hantuchova. “She’s coached by a former coach of mine,” said Kuznetsova with a cheeky grin, indicating that Hantuchova may have inside information about her opponent. But Kuznetsova's information may be slightly out of date, as Hantuchova is no longer with Kuznetsova’s former mentor Angel Gimenez; her mother is listed as her coach this week.

Sharapova's opponent in Saturday’s all-eastern European semifinals is Katarina Srebotnik, the Slovene who is coached by a Serb, Biljana Veselinovic.

Cynthia Lum/WireImage.co The invincible Rafael Nadal has shown some cracks in his armor lately.

Mutua Madrilena Masters Madrid defending champion Nadal lost to Berdych for the third time in four meetings. The score in the Madrid quarterfinal was 6-3, 7-6(6).

Nadal won five titles including Roland Garros this year, but has reached only one semifinal (losing to Federer at Wimbledon in the final) since the clay court season. The seemingly invincible Rafa’s hard court record this year is a respectable but far from extraordinary 23-7. He has also lost to Joachim Johansson, Mikhail Youzhny and Juan Carlos Ferrero in his last three tournaments.

Berdych is going in the opposite but more desirous direction, taking 12 of his last 15 matches.

"When he's playing his best tennis he is running and everywhere and can hit some incredible shots - but I can't remember him playing any other style of game,'' Berdych said. "This is the kind of game I like, that he's running behind the baseline and hitting balls just over the net so I could go in and volley or stay back and play from the baseline.''

The Czech will face Fernando Gonzalez who eliminated No. 15-seed Novak Djokovic 7-5, 5-7, 7-5.

Federer will face David Nalbandian who is having his best tournament since Roland Garros, taking down the hot Marat Safin in three tight sets. Safin committed a whopping 74 unforced errors. He made four of those in the decisive third-set tiebreak.

Nalbandian will face Federer who downed Robby Ginepri 6-3, 7-6(4). Federer and Nalbandian are 6-6 in their previous matches, but the Argentine has only beaten Federer once since 2003.

© TennisReporters.net 2006

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