Ferrer reaches semifinals

NEW YORK - David Ferrer needed a midmatch pedicure of sorts. He seemed bothered when his opponent got a midgame medical timeout. He was down a break in the fifth set.

In the end, though, the indefatigable Spaniard was barely better, as he usually is when matches go the distance.

With his high-energy brand of leg-churning, ball-chasing tennis, the fourth-seeded Ferrer outlasted eighth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic, of Serbia, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), in 4 hours, 31 minutes Thursday to reach the U.S. Open semifinals for the second time.

Ferrer trailed, 4-1, in the last set, but in the next game, Tipsarevic slammed to the ground while chasing a drop shot and stayed down for a few moments. Tipsarevic later had his right thigh taped up.

Ferrer, also a semifinalist at Flushing Meadows in 2007, has won four consecutive five-setters and is 17-9 overall.

When the match ended on Tipsarevic's backhand into the net, Ferrer raised his arms, then knelt near the baseline. The weary foes met at the net for a hug.

"I don't have words," said Ferrer, who reached the semifinals at the French Open in June. "It was a very emotional match."

Might have been the best of these 2 weeks so far, filled with twists and turns and plenty of theater.

Ferrer next will play defending champion Novak Djokovic in Sunday's final. Djokovic defeated 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro, 6-2, 7-6 (3), 6-4, in the last men's quarterfinal Thursday night.

Olympic champion Andy Murray and 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych - who eliminated 17-time major champion Roger Federer in four sets - earned their semifinal berths Wednesday.

Ferrer is the only man left who has never reached a Grand Slam final.

He had various issues Thursday, including a dispute over a line call early in the fifth, and a bothersome toe on his right foot that a trainer worked on in the third - removing Ferrer's sneaker and sock and using a pair of nail clippers to help fix things. At another changeover, Ferrer gestured wildly while exhorting himself between bites of a banana.

Tipsarevic, 28, was playing in only his second quarterfinal in 35 career Grand Slam tournaments. He reached that round in New York a year ago, too, but stopped playing because of a left leg injury while trailing his Davis Cup teammate and good pal Djokovic.

Thursday, he hit one shot by thrusting his racket around his back and closed another point by doing the splits while flipping up a lob.

"It was a really, really tough match," Ferrer said. "Janko - he's an amazing player . . . and he also deserves to win today."

In men's doubles, Bob and Mike Bryan will play for a fourth U.S. Open title. The American twins beat Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, of Pakistan, and Jean-Julien Rojer, of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-4, in the semifinals. The second-seeded Bryans, who have won 11 Grand Slam championships, will face fifth-seeded Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek in Friday's final. Paes and Stepanek advanced when the Spanish team of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez retired due to Lopez' calf injury.

Italy's Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci easily won their doubles semifinal match a day after facing each other in a singles quarterfinal. The second-seeded French Open champs beat Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, of Spain, 6-3, 6-2.

Errani and Vinci will face third-seeded Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in Sunday's final. That pair, from the Czech Republic, defeated Hsieh Su-wei and Anabel Medina Garrigues, 7-6 (2), 6-4.

In the women's semifinals Friday, top-seeded Victoria Azarenka faces No. 3 Maria Sharapova, and fourth-seeded Serena Williams meets the 10th-seeded Errani.