Kiefer advances to first final in three years at Rogers Cup

"I played against Andy very good today because he -- my opinion -- he played one of his best matches against me," Nadal said.

An uncharacteristically aggressive Murray went shot for shot with Nadal in the first set, during which both players held serve. It wasn't until the tiebreaker that he flinched. Down 2-6, Murray double-faulted on set point.

He still came out strong in the second set. It took 18 points for Nadal to hold serve in the first game, and when Nadal broke Murray in the fourth game, the gangly Scotsman broke back in the fifth.

But Nadal wore him down. Murray wound up with 40 unforced errors to Nadal's 16, and lost despite firing 14 more winners than Nadal.

He said the margin of error was just too small for him to keep pace.

"I made a few too many errors, and he played solid like always," he said.

Nadal hasn't lost since Rome in May. And in his last four finals, he's defeated top-ranked Roger Federer three times and world No. 3 Novak Djokovic once.

But he says he's not taking a win against Kiefer for granted.

"I played a very good tournament, but tomorrow makes a lot of difference win or lose one final, no?"

Kiefer, the first German to reach the final since Boris Becker 22 years ago, won a plodding affair in front of a subdued Rexall Centre crowd that didn't seem to take an interest until the final tiebreak.

Simon, who ousted Federer, and Kiefer mostly traded groundstrokes from the baseline. As he's done all tournament, Simon played patiently, kept the ball in play and waited for Kiefer to make mistakes. And, again, it worked, as Kiefer made 69 unforced errors.

But Simon made a few too many errors of his own. Up 5-4 in the third set, Simon had a ball gently bounce high in front of him and he primed for an overhead smash, before launching the ball into the bottom of the net.

He finished with 32 unforced errors, and capitalized only on three of 13 break-point opportunities.

"I didn't need to play a long match like this, but it was a great fight," Simon said. "I'm proud. I just gave all I had today."

Kiefer, meanwhile, hit 50 winners and 12 aces.

"I didn't play my best tennis, but in the important moments I could pick up my game and I was playing pretty good," he said.