Serbia's Novak Djokovic and Spaniard David Ferrer rolled into the US Open semifinals for the first time in their careers with dominating last-eight victories on Thursday.
Third seed Djokovic reached his third grand slam semifinal of the year with a 6-4, 7-6, 6-1 victory over Spain's Carlos Moya, and now faces Ferrer for a place in Sunday's final.
Ferrer, the 15th seed who accounted for compatriot Rafael Nadal in the fourth round, achieved his best result in a major with a 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 triumph over Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela.
In Saturday's other semifinal, world number one and three-times champion Roger Federer will battle fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko, who has yet to lose a set.
Djokovic was just 11 years old when the 31-year-old Moya won his lone major at the French Open in 1998.
In the crucial second set tiebreaker, the 20-year-old Djokovic survived a set-point to win 9-7 and take control of the two-hour, 18-minute quarter-final on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
"I knew that Carlos is a very good player, a competitor, a former number one," said Djokovic. "He has a lot of experience on the big matches on the big courts.
"He had a great tournament but luckily I played my best tennis and had more luck in the second-set tiebreak. In the third set, I played really well."
Inspired Djokovic
Moya was broken in the opening game of the final set and again in the fifth and seventh games against an inspired Djokovic. He double-faulted at match point.
"I was beat down mentally," admitted Moya, who had nine third-set errors compared to just one by Djokovic.
"Having the chance to be (one) set all would have been much different I guess. "Being two sets down, he is not as tight maybe as he was and he played much better. And I played a bit worse."
Ferrer, who stunned French Open champion Nadal in the last 16, beat 20th seed Chela in just over two hours to become only the fourth Spaniard to make the last four at the U.S. Open in the open era. "Maybe the last three matches is the best tennis (of my career)," said the 25-year-old Ferrer. "I'm laying really very well on hard courts and it's unbelievable.”
Meanwhile, Tenth seeded Sweedish-Austria pair of Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle overcame Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner of Czech Republic 7-5 6-4 to clinch the doubles title.
