Nadal Downs Fish In Raucous Late Late Show

Thanks everyone for being here until 2 O`clock.

Rafael Nadal turned dream wrecker at Flushing Meadows when he downed American favourite Mardy Fish 3-6 6-1 6-4 6-2 in a rowdy late late show that closed Wednesday's programme at the U.S. Open.

In a match that started on Wednesday and did not finish until 2.10 am local time on Thursday, world number one Nadal drowned out the deafening roars in Arthur Ashe Stadium to reach the last four at the grand slam event for the first time.

"The night atmosphere here is always amazing here but I prefer to finish a little earlier," a beaming Nadal said courtside after securing a last-four showdown with Britain's Andy Murray.

"Thanks everyone for being here until 2 O'clock."

He later added: "For sure it was not the best conditions to play a tennis match. But sometimes the schedules are tough, like here, and Australia, too. So sometimes it's difficult. But... you just accept and go on court and try your best."

After overcoming a first-set hiccup, a merciless Nadal was steaming towards victory when he was suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Leading 3-2 in the fourth set, Nadal was distracted by a male fan who shouted out from the stands while the Spaniard was in full flight of his service motion.

Sportingly, Fish immediately stopped the point and then play was held up for several minutes as a security official went to deal with the offending fan.

Once the umpire had reminded the crowd of the etiquette of staying quiet during points, normal service resumed and a rampaging Nadal won the next three games, sealing victory when Fish sailed a the ball long.

At 2.10, the finish was just 16 minutes short of the U.S. Open record for the latest finish in New York.

QUESTIONED WISDOM

After a string of drawn-out battles earlier in the day had pushed back the start of the match to 11.30 pm, former champion John McEnroe initially questioned the wisdom of the organisers in allowing the match to go ahead on Wednesday.

Commentating for television on the match, it was not long before he quipped: "They are used to staying up late in Spain, what was I thinking!"

Perhaps distracted by the buzz around the court after the nerve-shredding battle between the Williams sisters which had served as the warm-up act for his match, Nadal produced a string of erratic shots to go 3-0 down in the opening set.

It took the 22-year-old 18 minutes to register his first game on the board but from then on, he slowly reeled in Fish.

Backing up his thunderbolt serves with ferocious groundstrokes, Nadal romped through the second and third sets.

When Fish dropped his serve in the third game of the fourth set, he reacted by sitting down and then spitting through the strings of his racket. Not satisfied, he then slammed it to turn it into a mangled mess.

The crowd disruption only provided a brief respite for Fish and he bowed out after two hours and 40 minutes, allowing Nadal to get within touching distance of adding the U.S. Open title to his French Open, Wimbledon and Olympic triumphs.