Andy Murray 'Out', Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer 'In' the semi finals of French open

Confirmation arrived at Roland Garros that Andy Murray does not yet belong in the same grand slam company as the world's top three tennis players.

There is a reason why  Rafa Nadal is called "the Boss" by Nicolas Almagro and on Wednesday the ruthless claycourt king fired his fellow-Spaniard in his pursuit of a record seventh Roland Garros title.Nadal defeated Almagro 7-6, 6-2, 6-3 to put another Spaniard David Ferrer in the firing line in Friday's French Open semifinals.Ferrer made it through to his first Paris semi at the ripe old age of 30 after bouncing out British world number four Andy Murray 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 on a soggy day in the French capital.So how did the sixth seed rate his chances of reaching Sunday's final?"Winning a match against Rafa is almost impossible," he summed up bluntly.At least Ferrer struck a blow for the 30-somethings. By joining Roger Federer, who turns 31 in August, in the last four, it is the first time since 1969 that two 30-year-olds have made it to the same stage at Roland Garros.At 25, age was on Murray's side but unfortunately he failed to make that count.The Briton, a semifinalist last year, had never beaten a Spaniard on red dirt before Wednesday and the prospect of breaking that losing run against Ferrer looked bleak from the outset.Ferrer had sliced through the draw with a perfect 12-0 sets record and, although he dropped his first set on day 11 of the championships, Murray never looked like he had the weapons to bulldoze past an opponent nicknamed "The Wall."Along with Ferrer, Nadal and Almagro had also won 12 consecutive sets coming into the quarterfinals but by the end of the day only one man still held an intact record.

Maria Sharapova And Petra Kvitova Reach The Semis

Maria Sharapova rediscovered the devastatingly accurate form that has made her the most impressive player of the clay court season when she routed Kaia Kanepi 6-2, 6-3 in their quarter-final.With that victory, no.2 seed Sharapova has entered her third Roland Garros semi-final and for the first time in her career, she is looking like the player who is favoured to win it. The three-time Grand Slam title winner will face the Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who survived qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. It will be the third time in the last four Grand Slams that the two have met.In her fourth round victory over Klara Zakopalova, Sharapova had trouble serving and keeping her groundstrokes accurate, but that was not the case against Kanepi, as she served accurately and with pace and direction. She owned the Estonian with her down-the-line game from the baseline, and constantly had the powerful Kanepi on her heels. As she has done all spring, she returned ferociously, breaking Kanepi seven times and winning 74 percent of Kanepi's second serve points."She played very well," Kanepi said afterwards. "She was attacking all the time, and I didn't have much time to do my shots.  She puts the pressure on when she returns.  It's not very comfortable to serve."While neither woman was very accurate while sliding out wide, Sharapova did manage 21 winners and did a good job of keeping the points short, requiring just 74 minutes for the victory.“There were a few things I wanted to improve from the other matches," Sharapova said. "I just thought I played very defensively against an opponent that likes that type of game.  Today I did want to be aggressive and I did want to try and step in and move forward and get the first good hit on the ball."The 25-year-old Russian has won 17 of her 18 matches on clay this year, by far the most impressive mark of her career. She has become substantially stronger over the years. During the off-season and in between the hard-court and clay season, she worked with trainer Yutaka Nakamura to improve her footwork. Since she isn’t always slipping around when defending, she is able to get her feet set into more offensive positions."I think it's just about improving movement in general on any surface that you're playing," she said. "Obviously there are a few different movements on clay with the sliding and the recovering and getting back into the point which you work on, but I think it's just a general sense of movement."Meantime Kvitova – who has had a rough stretch battling illness and injuries since she reached the 2012 Australian Open semis – played an up and down contest against the ambitious Shvedova, but hung tough after she went down a break in the third set. Not the most patient of players, the big lefthander constantly went for her shots and it paid off, as in the last two sets she found the range with her hooking serve and massive forehand. Shvedova fought gamely, but said she was super-tired and Kvitova was simply too strong for her, nailing 38 winners to 14 from the Kazak."I expected it will be tough match and it was actually," Kvitova said. "She start well and I was very nervous from the beginning. The first set I did easy mistakes.  Then I knew that I had to change my game and I have to be the aggressive one and going for the points. The games were very close.  I'm happy that I won the big points. I couldn't give up."Not only has the Czech reached her first Roland Garros semi-final, she has won five matches in a row for the first time since January. She feels that her form is coming back."It's good to know that I can play and I hope that it will be not only five. But I know Maria is a tough opponent. I lost in the [last two] matches [against her].  She's playing very well.  She has a great season right now, and she's very tough opponent.”

David Ferrer To Meet Rafael Nadal In Second Semi-Final

A Shocking Result As David Ferrer Outclassed Andy Murray The World No.4 By  6-4, 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-2 in 3 hours 45 mins and seal a first-ever appearance in a French Open semi-final, where he faces Rafael Nadal. The Spanish sixth seed was a picture of consistency all match long, in contrast to the British No.4 seed who hit 59 unforced errors  in a wasteful performance that saw him fail to reach a sixth consecutive Grand Slam.Watching Murray is to see a perfectionist at work. A man possessed with winning, the fourth member of the 'Big Four' is his own harshest critic, and misfiring all match long, the Scot had a harrowing afternoon. Ferrer meanwhile is a frustrating man to face, even for the most mild-mannered player. The Spaniard's preferred method of winning is suffocation, squeezing the life out of his adversaries, rarely going for winners and not attacking unless the time is just right. The man from Valencia keeps hitting, long and relentlessly, until his opponent cracks, as Murray did too often today.

Murray falls into Ferrer trap

Ferrer is hard to beat because he plays the percentage game – brilliantly – keeping his unforced error count down to a strict minimum, and on clay this carefully thought-out tactic is more than enough to beat all but the very best.He had not dropped a set all tournament, and he lured Murray into the same trap as his earlier victims. Undecided as to whether he should attack or defend, the Scot fell between two stools, and was caught in long rallies that ended more often than not when he committed an error. And when he did try to throw in a drop-shot or change things up, the ploy did not work.The Spaniard had done his homework on Murray, and brought a 3-0 head-to-head record on clay into the match. He knew the Brit loves nothing more than defending before counter punching, so played a waiting game of his own. Crucially, the Scot's service was not giving him a platform and he was broken twice in the first set, at 1-2 and then more significantly 4-5, nullifying the good work he had done to get back into the set with a break of his own. The second set was the same story in reverse: Murray broke Ferrer twice only to hand back the advantage in the very next game as the Scot's seemingly uncharacteristic errors become ever more commonplace.

Rain break turn the tie

A tie-break in that second set, and with drizzle beginning to fall, Murray found the form that had carried him to five consecutive Grand Slam semis. At last he went on the offensive, properly and wholeheartedly, and snatched the decider 7-3 to level the match. With the wind well and truly in his sails, Murray held to open the third set, but then came perhaps the turning point of the match. Drizzle became rain and the play was suspended. When the pair returned after the break, it was as if Murray had forgotten that he had seized the initiative, and we were back to the script of the first two sets. Break followed break until Ferrer grabbed his third of the set to win it 6-3.The match had turned definitively in the Spaniard's favour and he was ruthless in putting Murray away in the fourth set. To his credit, the Scot went for his shots more, but Ferrer was now full of confidence, chasing everything down and, whisper it quietly, even hitting the odd winner of his own. He broke Murray twice early in the set, raced to a 4-1 lead and saw it out to make it through to the final four of a major for the first time in his 12-year career. And for the first time in six Slams, Murray was out before the semi-final stage, making his hold on "big four" status more tenuous than before.

Rafael Nadal Beats Nicolas Almagro To go Ahead In Semis

Rafael Nadal Defeated His Countrymen Nicolas Almagro To Go ahead By 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-3.Nicolas Almagro Was Good In first set but Lost His Rhythm In second and third.Almagro had much cause for optimism prior to this one, above and beyond the expression third time lucky. Almagro had not dropped a set all tournament long, and had not dropped one en-route to his ATP tour win in Nice last month. He had risen to no.12 in the world and was playing the best tennis of his life, most recently in his comfortable win over Janko Tipsarevic. That he was on a roll was very much evident in the first set. For the first 12 games he went toe-to-toe with his fellow Spaniard, aided by the fact that Nadal’s backhand seemed not quite up to speed. Almagro’s own backhand, meanwhile – a beautiful one-handed flourish in this age of two-fisted uniformity – was doing some damage.Yet when it came to the breaker, the qualities which had stood him in good stead up to that point seemed to desert him, and he could make no headway. An exchange of 34 strokes saw Nadal blast a forehand down the line for a clean winner. Briefly Almagro rallied, coming back from 1-5 to 4-5 with the aid of that backhand. But Nadal still forced set point, and Almagro could not find an answer to his service delivery. The set was done.Early in the second Nadal was at full throttle to force two break points. He went crosscourt with his backhand to push his opponent out wide, and Almagro could only put it in the net to give the break for 1-3. Almagro came back with everything he had, and at 2-4 he punished Nadal once again with his crosscourt backhand for his one break point of the set. In the long fighting rally which ensued, Almagro chased for every get, making Nadal play one more stroke – but when it mattered, Nadal put the ball away and then held for 5-2. On set point the Almagro backhand which had worked so beautifully sent the ball long.As rain began to fall on Philippe Chatrier court, Almagro was not giving up. Three times he had break point, and three times loose shots saw them all go by. At 3-4 he double-faulted for break point, and Nadal drove him from one side of the court to the other to force the advantage. At the death, Nadal nailed victory by hammering home an ace on his first match point. On this evidence, Rafa is looking as strong as ever, and his dream of a record seventh straight title at Roland Garros is very much alive.