TORONTO - Top-seeded Rafael Nadal got a stiff test at the Rogers Cup on Friday as he was pushed to a third set in a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 quarter-final victory over Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Nadal, who won this event in 2005 and 2008, was broken in his first service game and went on to lose the opening set. The world's top-ranked player used his punishing baseline game to bounce back and advance to the semifinals of the US$2.43-million tournament.

With Kohlschreiber serving at 3-3 in the deciding set, Nadal picked up four straight points for the break. They held serve after that with Nadal completing the win over the 37th-ranked German in exactly two hours.

The Spaniard will next play defending champion Andy Murray of Britain, who was dominant in a 6-2, 6-2 win over David Nalbandian of Argentina.

"It was one of the best matches I've played this year probably," Murray said.

The fourth-seeded Murray needed just 69 minutes to snap Nalbandian's 11-match winning streak.

"I was expecting it to be a very tough match and it wasn't," Murray said. "You know when you're out there, you're not really thinking whether it's comfortable ... you're not thinking about how easy the scoreline is or not, because he has been over the last few years one of the best at coming back from tough situations.

"So the scoreline would suggest that it was very easy. But if you look in the first set especially, a lot of close games, a lot of 30-all points, a lot of deuce points and long games. I just managed to hang on."

Nalbandian, who was victorious at last week's Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, gave credit to Murray but admitted that playing 10 matches in 14 days had taken its toll.

"I feel a little tired for all the weeks, for last week and this one, and I didn't get a rest," he said. "But I'm pretty happy the way that I tried to play. In a few games I was close but I made some easy mistakes.

"I have to keep going, keep working, and I know I have a lot of tournaments from here until the end of the year. So I have to keep going in this way."

Second-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia and third-seeded Roger Federer were scheduled to play their quarter-final matches Friday evening. Federer was to meet seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic while Djokovic was to take on Jeremy Chardy of France.

In doubles quarter-final play, Toronto's Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia dropped a 6-3, 7-6 (5) decision to the unseeded duo of Frantisek Cermak of the Czech Republic and Michal Mertinak of Slovakia.