Cincinnati: The Cincinnati Masters has thrown some surprises as Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Roger Federer were shown the doors at the quarter-final stage here on Friday. Djokovic and Murray fell against lower ranked players whereas it was Rafael Nadal who got the better off Federer in a clash of titans.
Federer started off well as he won the first set but after saving four match points he went down to Nadal to 7-5, 4-6, 3-6 in a nerve-wracking quarterfinal on Friday at the Cincinnati Masters.
With this massive turnaround, Federer will go further down in the world rankings and consequently left-handed Spaniard will move up to second if he gets claims the title.
In the other quarterfinals of the day, the number one and two seeded Djokovic and Murray made their abrupt exit by losing the clash against John Isner and Tomas Berdych, respectively.
Berdych played his heart out to win the match by 6-3, 6-4 and gave Murray another sour outing before he kicks off his title defence at US Open on August 26. Murray fired as much as 10 aces but missed out on four break points. This was the second time in this calendar year that Berdych has managed to ease past Murray.
Meanwhile, World number one Djokovic fell 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 7-5 to unseeded John Isner and with that his dream of becoming the first man to claim all the nine Masters 1000 titles remained unfulfilled.
