dick: ohmy! dick: how brilliant was that? he uses a nice, soft shot to keep in the point. john: that was this shot. absolutely right, dick. gets himself back in position. he starts going to the other end. how strong do you have to be to do that? a shot i only dream of.

john: that's bad luck, because it looked like the shot was actually going wide, but because nadal's ball hit the net, it went in. he's jinxed. dick: kerber falls down a break 3-0 to stosur. the other semifinal at 8:00 tonight, scheduled at 8:00 here on cbs. serena williams and the number one player in the world, caroline wozniacki. to be played on this court, arthur ashe stadium. uncle tony. lifetime mentor.

in so many ways. in so many ways. not just in tennis for rafa. dick: and a love hold for nadal, securing the break. he leads 5-3. you can shop at usopen.org, find the largest selection of 2011 u.s. open merchandise. i.b.m. brings the best coverage of the u.s. open to you online and on your mobile device. visit usopen.org. saw uncle toni there. your father patrick mcenroe tells the story about how much control he has over rafa, and not only his tennis playing, but maybe more importantly how he handles himself as a man socially. rafa a year or so ago was playing pinball with his

friends and they were making a lot of noise in a public place. he said, listen, fellows, you've got to keep down the noise. a couple of minutes later, the noise had increased. uncle toni went over underneath the pinball machine, pulled out the plug. you ain't going to play. it is an extreme example. of how much he wants his nephew, rafa, to be the man. now you start to hear, well, maybe he should be a little tougher. he should show a little more swagger. john: he's showing it right now on the court, which is where it matters. he wasn't with him in montreal and cincinnati. he's righted the ship the week before the open. now look at how well he's playing.

dick: bad miss from murray's end. 30-30. john: murray's gone off the rails here, and it's not a good thing. he needed to get an edge, i feel. at least force nadal to serve this out. dick: can you imagine, john, when you were 12 years old, if your coach has said i don't want you to play left-handed anymore, you're going to play right-handed? how can that happen? that's the case with nadal. a natural right-hander. that southpaw side has been that southpaw side has been pretty good to him.

hey, jessica, jerry neumann with a policy question. jerry, how are you doing? fine, i just got a little fender bender. oh, jerry, i'm so sorry. i would love to help but remember, you dropped us last month. yeah, you know it's funny. it only took 15 minutes to sign up for that new auto insurance company but it's taken a lot longer to hear back. is your car up a pole again? [ crying ] i miss you, jessica! jerry, are you crying? no, i just, i bit my tongue. [ male announcer ] get to a better state.

dick: rafael nadal, the only player on the men's side not to lose a set in the championship, and he's serving for the opening set here at 5-4. murray with just one break chance, denied.

john: you talk about excellent footwork there to get out to that ball, to run around and hit it at an angle with the forehand. look at this, how he sidesteps into position. what can you do? there's nothing you can do if you're murray. you're murray. amazing shot. >> let. >> let. first service.

dick: when he cruises along in straight sets, he keeps on going. that's what happened the last five times in majors. john: he played a lot of tennis up until wimbledon, which is normal for him, because he's winning all these events on clay. so he's a little burnt out, takes some time off, and actually the fact that he didn't do that well in those summer events, now may have ironically helped him because those legs look awful fresh.

dick: so what you're saying, john, is that the prelude to the hard court u.s. open series, you want to win those, win points or bonuses and all that, but when you lose early, what happens to the lesser players, then you've got all those days of rest. mary: he had to rest after wimbledon because he hurt his foot, remember? he took some time off, went with his girlfriend to an island. and that's why he lost in those summer tournaments. he said he didn't get to train properly. so he didn't get a lot of matches. he didn't have a lot of confidence. but he's built it with every but he's built it with every round here.

john: it's like rolling the dice a little bit. if you get that confidence back, it can be the best thing that happened to you. i remember when novak played roger and lost to him at the french and decided not to play any grass court tune-up events. he banked on the fact that he would eventually get his confidence, perhaps not until the second week, and he really didn't play his best until the semis. dick: up a couple set points now. john: but boy, did it work for him. him. it's working well now for rafa.

dick: set to rafael nadal. dick: set to rafael nadal. 6-4. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the stella artois chalice celebrates the beer. and now the new can... ♪ ...celebrates the chalice. the new stella artois chalice can.

bill: and we're back at the usta billie jean king national tennis center. a little bit of a shift change. bill macatee along with mary carillo and john mcenroe. john: mary, the future is now. bill: good to be with you guys. what about that opening set to rafa, 6-4. what does murray have to do

now? john: i think it's really important for him to get off to that good start, win that first set. he had the far more difficult, strenuous match. not only mentally, but also physically. the third day in a row they've the third day in a row they've played the best of five. john: besides the mental part of it, the belief and the will. as he said before the match, that he's going to have to dig deeper than he ever has in his life to beat this guy. but he's got to serve better. bill: samantha stosur, the

women's semifinal going on at the grandstand, trying to close out that opening set. you said before the u.s. open began, you thought this was andy murray's best chance, john, to win a grand slam. john: i absolutely did say that. but you need a little luck along the way. he got a dealt a little short end of the stick these last couple days with the couple days with the scheduling. bill: what a play.

john: he would definitely be a good squash player, murray. his pants are even getting on his nerves now. that's the type of point if you're going to win your first major, you've got to win those type of points and inspire yourself. bill: uncle toni likes it. 22-shot rally. john: good time to slow things down for murray, who's got to be winded after that effort. just an hour in. we're a quarter to 7:00 live here. he's under the gun. nadal has also played three days in a row. so not easy for him. but certainly the far easier but certainly the far easier match.

bill: 30-30. mary: you think murray's also got to get a real attitude adjustment to get through patch s like this, where he's so aggravated with himself that he can't get out of his own way? john: i think, mary, that's a very good point. he should study tapes to see what he looks like. because guys off nadal feed off that. and he's playing one of the greatest players that ever lived. i mean, let's be honest. it's not easy. he's lost to federer twice in the final, djokovic once, and he's got to get by guys like nadal. it's a tall order for murray. bill: ace, second of the match for murray. trying to get to his fourth grand slam final.

in the previous finals, he has not won a set. john: he's got a long way to go to even get to that point, dealing with this guy nadal. he's really recovered quickly from his two matches the last from his two matches the last couple days. bill: so murray holds to start set number two. now, a look back powered by panasonic 3-d to our first men's semifinal. and it was an instant classic. novak djokovic rallying against roger federer.

and celebrating as only novak can. john: he has a way now of actually turning negatives into positives, which before it was the other way around, because that first look that we saw there was when he was upset with the crowd. and he was so frustrated that they were getting so behind federer, and somehow, some way, next thing you know, shows you sports, he's dancing with them. bill: how about those shots on match point? john: you can't get any better than that. as good as it gets. amazing. two years in a row. i mean, how harsh is that for roger? double match point against the same guy.

bill: rafa's won the last four meetings with andy, including the semifinals at wimbledon this year in four sets. john, do you think andy murray believes in his heart that he can beat rafa? or does he have to convince himself during the match that that's possible? john: well, i think he believes on this surface, he really does -- the match is that much better for him. but he's got to have fresh legs. and that's the part where the toughness mentally -- mary talked about that, attitude adjustment. it's hurting him right now. bill: 15-15. john: it seems certainly highly unlikely watching this at the moment that he's going to be able to win this match. able to win this match. highly unlikely.

john: how quick is that? he's so good at sneaking, if you want to call it that, into net. bill: just pounced. 30-15. john: he sees murray go to the one hand and he's in like a flash. most of the match, he's taken that forehand, that inside-out, and gone back to his forehand, murray's. and you notice the way he won that last game is he took that shot and ripped it up the line for a winner. so now murray trying to make his shot more unpredictable again.

bill: 6-6 at net. john: that makes life tougher john: that makes life tougher on murray again. bill: opening service game of the second set for rafa, 30-30.

john: this would absolutely be a huge boost for murray if he could get an early lead, get back on track. he had an opportunity in the first set. i think it was 2-3 when he could take the lead and really get some momentum. that was the only chance he had. now this would really -- this is really important for him. bill: a chance to go up an early break here in set number early break here in set number two.

john: that is his best shot, bar none. two-handed backhand return, and that is just -- you talk about having a bad attitude. he'll have a bad attitude after that, missing that return. that is his bread and butter. bill: he'll get another look. second break chance. john: the good news is he didn't react negatively to it. hopefully he'll start getting on to that, make this a real on to that, make this a real match.

bill: again, a weak reply to the nadal serve. back to deuce. john: that was an excellent serve at 120. serve at 120. he really misses the overheads.

bill: a third break point for the scot. john: you can see how important this is for murray, to really -- you mentioned believing in himself. if he could really win a major and have to beat not one, but two of the top guys, nadal and djokovic. and arguably the most dangerous guy in the draw besides them,

isner, who he beat yesterday. isner, who he beat yesterday. >> let, first service. bill: oh, again. john: it's almost like he waited on that too long. he could have taken even an extra step or two. taking it earlier. still, that's another one. he's got to make that. bill: 14 winners, 18 unforced

errors for murray. errors for murray. deuce number three. john: you see how well nadal moved into that? better footwork so far. because he's lost his rhythm and his edge on his serve. this is the type of game where murray has got to break him. he's not making many first serves at all.

bill: rafa serving at just 36% here in the second set. and murray clearly frustrated. he had three chances to break. john: yeah, he just cracked his racket. over on the grandstand, one of the women's semis. bill: samantha stosur, angelique kerber. that was a few moments ago. stosur 6-3 in that opening set. level at 1-1 in the second. john: sam stosur has that killer serve. that mean american twist topspin that gets way up on opponents. opponents. her best weapon.