Nadal-Murray, Federer-Djokovic: US Open's fab 4

NEW YORK: On a day judged as much by elapsed time as games won, Rafael Nadal came out looking the freshest.

Nadal and Andy Murray each won Friday to set up a semifinal matchup at the US Open. They'll be back on court Saturday - their third straight day of tennis at a tournament that has been forced into some drastic scheduling changes after losing two days to the rain.

Fourth-seeded Murray won a four-set grind against 28th-seeded John Isner, 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2) that took 3 hours, 24 minutes.

No. 2 Nadal had a much easier time, handing slow-moving No. 21 Andy Roddick a 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 defeat in 1 hour, 53 minutes to emerge fresher heading into Saturday.

"I try my best," Nadal said. "I don't think about a short match for the quarterfinals. I think about trying to win the match."

In Image: Rafael Nadal of Spain, left, shakes hands with Andy Roddick, after their quarterfinal match

Text & Images: AP