Nadal breezes into U.S. Open semifinal
Rafael Nadal did his part; then it was up to Roger Federer.
Nadal powered into the U.S. Open semifinal and kept alive the possibility of a match with his longtime rival, overwhelming Russian teenager Andrey Rublev 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 on Wednesday.
The top-seeded Nadal wrapped up the rout in just over 90 minutes, then waited to see if he would finally face Federer in the only Grand Slam tournament where they have never met.
But it wasn’t to be, as Federer fell to No. 24 seed Juan Martin del Potro 7-5. 3-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4 later Wednesday. It was the sixth time at the U.S. Open Nadal and Federer were one win away from facing each other. “If it’s Roger Federer, of course I am excited to play that match, and of course it’s special to play against him here in New York for the first time in our career,” Nadal said.
“That’s something that didn’t happen before and is something strange, because we played a couple of times in all the important events of the world, so I will be excited and I will be very excited to play that match, of course.”
He looked ready for Federer or anyone else, breaking the 19-yearold Rublev’s serve seven times.
Earlier, Coco Vandeweghe was the third American to reach the U.S. Open women’s semifinals, beating top-seeded Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (4), 6-3.
The 20th-seeded Vandeweghe matched her best result in a Grand Slam tournament, having also reached the semifinals of the Australian Open in January before falling to Venus Williams.
Williams is also in the semifinals in Flushing Meadows along with Sloane Stephens, both winning quarter-finals matches Tuesday.
Madison Keys completed the clean sweep for American women, giving the host country all four U.S. Open semifinal spots for the first time in 36 years. The 15th-seeded Keys served impeccably, controlled groundstroke exchanges from the baseline and was never in trouble during a 6-3, 6-3 victory over 418th-ranked qualifier Kaia Kanepi of Estonia that lasted only 69 minutes Wednesday night.