In Rafael Nadal's wild ride through this US Open draw, he has been kissed by an intruder on court, careened from corner to corner chasing shots in high-octane rallies that resembled a series of sprints against the explosive Gael Monfils, regained the World No. 2 ranking, grown weary of answering questions about his chronically creaky knees and the state of his strained abdominals, and spent a shower-stalled Friday getting his kicks playing foosball in the player lounge.
Returning to action today in his sunshine yellow shirt that shimmered against the gray sky shrouded by clouds, Nadal brought calm to a chaotic quarterfinal as he beat the showers and an error-prone Fernando Gonzalez in the process.
Playing efficiently and effectively and moving the ball around the court with the accuracy of a man side-stepping a series of puddles, the third-seeded Spaniard required just 34 minutes to wrap up a 7-6(4), 7-6(2), 6-0 quarterfinal victory over a disinterested Gonzalez to advance to Sunday's US Open semifinal.
Nadal will face Juan Martin del Potro in the first men's semifinal scheduled for noon tomorrow on ESPN2. The second semifinal between top-seeded Roger Federer and fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic will be televised by CBS starting at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time. The complete television schedule is here.
That collective sigh of relief floating around the stadium emanated from the USTA President's box. Squeezing in the conclusion of this quarterfinal between the rain drops ensures the men's final will be played on Monday (assuming, of course, the men's semifinals are completed on Sunday and the Flushing Meadows forecast calls for sunny skies on Sunday and Monday).
"I have to admit I am very pleased that that match is finished," tournament director Jim Curley said with a smile.
The quarterfinal commenced on Thursday night, but two spitting rain delays suspended play before a sustained rain finally postponed play with Nadal holding a 7-6(4), 6-6(2) lead. The USTA came under criticism for opting against playing both men's quarterfinals Thursday afternoon. Instead, the mixed doubles final and women's doubles semifinals were played prior to the start of the del Potro-Marin Cilic quarterfinal.
Rain canceled play on Friday and when the match finally resumed at noon today, Nadal, who compared resumption of play in a tie break to playing the lottery, wasted no time in securing his semifinal spot. He won eight of the first nine points in a baseline barrage that buried Gonzalez.
"(The) important thing is to be calm, be ready to come back and when you come back in one situation like today anything can happen because it's a little bit lottery," Nadal said. "It depends on the first two points. It's not (if you) play well or play bad, if you feel good on these two points or not. (The) important thing is be ready to accept everything and try to arrive there knowing what to do."
It was only a year ago that the effects of a grueling schedule that saw him win the Olympic gold medal in Beijing then fly all the way to New York to contest the Open caught up with Nadal, who looked mentally and emotionally drained in losing to Andy Murray during the 2008 semifinals that was spread out over two days due to rain. The difference is Nadal is much fresher this time around and is playing only his third tournament since he saw his 31-match Roland Garros winning streak come to an end in a shocking fourth-round French Open setback to Robin Soderling.
"I'm more fresh than last year, 100% sure," Nadal said. "We will see how I am physically tomorrow. But mentally, the last year was totally destroyed mentally. Mentally, this year, I am perfect, no?"
The prospect of playing three consecutive days to win the title motivated the muscular Mallorcan to make quick work of Gonzalez.
Clad in a red Nike t-shirt with the "Just Do It" logo across the front, Nadal adopted that clinical approach today. The man who endured a rain delay in dethroning five-time defending champion Roger Federer in the epic 2008 Wimbledon final, expended little energy completing the quarterfinal. Nadal does not expect conditioning to be a factor playing for the second straight day on Sunday.
"For me the match of today wasn't important physically; (so) that doesn't matter to play two days in a row. The conditions for me will be the same for the four," Nadal said.
It is the second US Open straight semifinal for the third-seeded Spaniard who will face the sixth-seeded del Potro for a place in Monday's final. The six-time Grand Slam champion has won four of six meetings with del Potro, but del Potro has won their last two encounters, both staged on hard courts. He fought back from a 0-3 deficit to stun the then World No. 1, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3) at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami in March and swept Nadal, 7-6(5), 6-1, in Montreal last month.
The lanky 20-year-old from Tandil, Argentina may well the the most intriguing of the four semifinalists in that he is the only one who hast yet to reach a Grand Slam final, but he can generate the explosive power from his 6-foot-6 frame to turn any hard-court rally into a monologue where he can impose the final word. Nadal said del Potro's serve, which the Argentine has developed into a significant weapon by leading his toss out into the court and using his expansive reach to find angles in the service box unexplored by other members of the top 10, has made him a more dangerous player and confident competitor.
"He's a very confident player. In the past he did not serve like he does now," Nadal said. "He has an unbelievable serve and from the baseline he is very solid. He is very big, the movement is not 100 percent perfect. He is very strong and he arrive every place. For his altitude his movement is OK, it's good. He's a confident player and it's always the same thing: be ready to try to put one more ball (back) then the rest."
Contesting his first US Open quarterfinal in seven years, Gonzalez went all in emotionally and mentally in the second set tie breaker. When he lost the breaker, the man with the mammoth forehand lost interest. A Gonzalez double fault prompted a seismic break down as he smashed his Babolat racquet in rage after dropping serve. Overhitting on a mid-court swing forehand volley, Gonzalez surrendered serve again to fall behind 0-3. In a physical sign of capitulation, Gonzalez called for the trainer, who trimmed away the tape wrapping his left and right feet as Nadal quickly gave the Chilean his walking papers.
The reigning Australian Open champion is aiming to bookend the year with Grand Slam championship by capturing the only major crown missing from his trophy collection. If Nadal wins the Open, he will join World No. 1 Roger Federer in completing the career Grand Slam this season. Nadal is bidding to join an exclusive list of elite champions — Don Budge, Fred Perry, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, Andre Agassi and Federer — as only the seventh man in history to collect all four major championships.
Stressing that immortality is not always acquired immediately, Nadal said his commitment to completing the career Grand Slam will be a career-long quest.
"Well sure it is an important goal for me, no?" Nadal said. "But I am 23 years old so I expect to have a lot of years to be here fighting to win this tournament, no? I going to try all my life. This is special, but that's very difficult. Right now, I focus on the match of tomorrow. That's it."
Focus was fleeting for Gonzalez, who never found his range or rhythm and his competitive mood matched the murky sky — he lacked the light of optimism after tumbling into the twilight of a two-set hole. Asked to explain his abrupt demise, Gonzalez said repeated mis-fires off his favored forehand left him on the wrong end of the shoot-out.
"I don't know. I can tell you because I don't have the answer," Gonzalez said. "I didn't feel the ball like I really wanted. I feel that my shot doesn't make the same damage as any other day. I went for it. I think I did a good play missed one, the next one I missed another one and then missed another one. What else can I do? I tried my best. In the beginning of the third set, he did a break and then another one and after that it's tough because he was hitting many balls to my backhand really high and I feel I cannot do damage after the first break. I didn't know what to do."
Speculation surrounding the state of Nadal's health — both his creaky knees, which forced him to take a two-month sabbatical, preventing him from defending his Wimbledon title, and the strained abdominal he sustained in Cincinnati and has required treatment in his third-round win over Nicolas Almagro and on Thursday against Gonzalez — has been rampant on the grounds ot the National Tennis Center. Interest in the injury intensified after Rafa's coach, Uncle Toni Nadal, said on Thursday his nephew's abs "were not good", but yesterday's complete day or rest combined with the fact Nadal did not seem to lack any sting on his serve today, points to signs of progression in his mid-section.
Asked to assess his physical condition, Nadal replied: "I am OK, no? I have only a little bit problem in the abdominal. That's it" before adding "Guys well, sorry, but I prefer not only to talk about the game, no?...I am not perfect and so I play how far, how long I can. I really would love to play two meters longer sometimes."
From his vantage point on the opposite side of the net, Gonalez, who won only four points on Nada's serve in the third set, suggested the Spaniard's ability to stretch up and out on his serve suggests his abdominal muscle is not severely strained.
"I don't think it's gonna be a really huge injury because if you have a really huge injury (then you are) not able to play on the court," Gonzalez said. "With the abdominals, normally you have trouble to serve, but he have a really good serve."
