Even 'Bad Day' Isn't Enough to Derail Nadal

World's Top Player Puts End To Querrey's U.S. Open Run

FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y., Sept. 1 -- In his march to the world's No. 1 ranking, Rafael Nadal has proved in recent months that there's not a surface, a continent, or an opponent he can't dominate -- at least for this magical stretch in his young career.

Through hard work and grit, Nadal, 22, has developed the disparate array of strokes and strategy required to win on the clay of Roland Garros, the grass of Wimbledon's All England club and the hard courts of the Beijing Olympics.

But what happens when the world's best player suddenly finds that his most reliable shots desert him?

Monday at the U.S. Open offered a telling glimpse, as the top-seeded Nadal hit his first ugly patch of the tournament before prevailing, 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, over American Sam Querrey.

Few labored harder this Labor Day than Nadal, who hadn't lost a set until Monday's fourth-round meeting with the hard-serving Querrey, 20, who surprised even himself with how freely he managed to blast his massive forehand during the most tense moments in the 3-hour 13-minute match.

Querrey, who had never advanced to the round of 16 in a major, finished with 20 aces and 52 winners, declaring himself a force to be reckoned with in the process. Should he fulfill his considerable potential, there's little doubt that his first major title will come on the U.S. Open's hard courts, which play to his strengths.

But it was the more experienced Nadal who played the critical points best -- particularly during the third-set tiebreak. And on a day when so much wasn't going his way on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court, that was enough.

"In every tournament you have one bad day," Nadal said afterward. "That's the normal thing. [The] important thing is win. When you are playing not your best, the important thing is win."

With the victory, Nadal matched his best showing at the U.S. Open, reaching the quarterfinals for a second consecutive year. His next opponent will be another American who has exceeded expectations, Mardy Fish, who dismantled the favored Gael Monfils of France, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2, with a classic serve-and-volley attack.

Also advancing Monday were sisters Venus and Serena Williams, who earned the unenviable task of facing each other in the quarterfinals Wednesday night. Neither sister has lost a set yet, and neither was challenged on Monday. Venus breezed past Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, 6-1, 6-3. And Serena cruised past Séverine Brémond, 6-2, 6-2.

Nadal and Querrey had met only once before Monday, just two months after Querrey turned pro in 2006. A gangly, unheralded late-comer to the sport, the 6-6 Querrey knew then that he had nothing to lose against Nadal. So he smacked the ball with abandon, winning the first set before succumbing in three sets in that hard-court encounter in Cincinnati.

But Querrey found it wasn't as easy to play quite so fearlessly Monday after walking onto the U.S. Open's featured court, with nearly 23,000 tennis fans staring down at him, and the world's best player snorting like a bull preparing to rampage on the other side of the net.