NEW YORK (AFP) – Rafael Nadal and Fernando Gonzalez waited through a steady rain Friday in hopes of finishing their suspended US Open quarter-final match while the women's semi-finals were postponed to Saturday.
After waiting through nearly five hours of downpours, tournament officials moved matches involving defending champion Serena Williams and Belgium's Kim Clijsters plus Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki and Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer.
Six-time Grand Slam champion Nadal and Chilean 11th seed Gonzalez were set to return to Arthue Ashe Stadium should the drenching relent as organizers clung to hopes of finishing on Sunday as scheduled.
Nadal was aided by the break, having aggravated an abdominal muscle strain while seizing a 7-6 (7/4), 6-6 (3/2) advantage before play was halted Thursday.
The men's doubles final and a women's doubles semi-final were also awaiting their scheduling fate after postponements. While breaks in the drizzle had allowed for some attempts to dry the courts, conditions were far from playable.
Five-time defending champion Roger Federer, the Swiss 15-time Slam champion, and Serbian fourth seed Novak Djokovic are set for one men's semi-final while Argentine sixth seed Juan Martin Del Potro awaits the Nadal-Gonzalez winner.
Nadal was also hit by rain last year when his US Open semi-final against Britain's Andy Murray was halted in the third set and finished on Sunday.
Both 2008 singles finals were postponed a day, Serena Williams winning on Sunday and Roger Federer in the first US Open men's final pushed to a Monday since 1987, when Ivan Lendl defeated Mats Wilander for the crown.
Nadal hopes to complete a career Grand Slam with a US Open title and such a run would continue a tradition of historic crowns won in rain-hit years.
Don Budge completed the first calendar-year Grand Slam in 1938 after a hurricane halted play for a record six days. Rod Laver finished off the second men's Slam with a Monday win in 1962 and his second Slam in 1969 on a Monday.
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