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Stosur stuns Zvonareva to enter semis

Nadal, Murray advance; Lee-Hesh exit
Last Updated 08 September 2011, 19:29 IST

Stosur, who survived two epic three-set matches to reach the quarterfinals for the second straight year, extended her winning streak over Zvonareva to eight matches with an impressive display of hitting.

Zvonareva, who made the final last year and was seeded second this time, had no answer to Stosur's powerful serve as she become the first Australian woman to reach the semifinals here since Wendy Turnbull in 1984.

Serena Williams struggled with her serve in the first set before finding the range to score a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia to reach the semifinals.

Spain's Rafael Nadal and Briton Andy Murray made up for lost time by demolishing their fourth round opponents in straight sets to remain on course for a blockbuster semifinal showdown. The pair needed around two hours each to charge into the quarterfinals when they were cleared to resume their matches after the rain and drizzle that washed out the last two days was replaced by brilliant blue skies.

Nadal kept his title defence on track with a 7-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Luxembourg's Gilles Muller while Murray breezed past American wildcard Donald Young 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.

Tournament organizers were berated by players on Wednesday after they tried to make them play in the rain and there were more farcical scenes on Thursday because of damp patches on the Louis Armstrong Stadium court. American Andy Roddick, who was among a group of players that angrily complained about court conditions on Wednesday, again confronted officials after resuming his round-of-16 clash with Spanish fifth seed David Ferrer at Louis Armstrong.

The players returned to the locker room as staff tried in vain to dry the court with towels and a vacuum before the match was eventually moved to an outside court with seating for less than 600 spectators. "I'm baffled, I'm baffled. Find us a court," Roddick snapped at officials. "At a certain point that has to take precedence over what people can watch."

Nadal showed no signs of the cramping that caused him to collapse during his news conference after his last match as he overwhelmed Muller. The match resumed with Nadal trailing 3-0 but the Spaniard broke back and won the first set tiebreaker than ran away with the match.

Nadal, Murray and Roddick confronted tournament organisers after their matches were halted, saying the conditions were already dangerous before they began.

“It was still raining when they called us on court. The rain never really stopped, the courts were not dry,” said Nadal, who was trailing Gilles Muller 3-0 when play was stopped. “I know the fans are there but the health of the players is important.”

In each of the last three years, the men's final has been held over until the Monday because of rain delays, triggering an annual debate over why there is still no roofed court at the National Tennis Center. USTA has balked at the idea because of the enormous cost of covering Arthur Ashe stadium, the largest tennis stadium in the world.

“This is one of the biggest events in tennis, a Grand Slam tournament event with huge revenues, so maybe they should consider a roof in future,” said top seed Novak Djokovic.

Djokovic said he supported the players who complained about being ordered to start playing when it was still sprinkling.

Lee-Hesh ousted

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi were knocked out of the US Open after they lost their quarterfinal match to sixth seeded Polish pair Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 4-6, 6-7 (4).

Results (prefix number denote seedings):

Men (fourth round): 21-Andy Roddick (US) bt 5-David Ferrer (Spain) 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; 28-John Isner (US) bt 12-Gilles Simon (Fra-nce) 7-6(2), 3-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(4); 2-Rafael Nadal (Spain) bt Gilles Muller (Lux) 7-6(1), 6-1, 6-2; 4-Andy Murray (Britain) bt Donald Young (US) 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.

Women (quarterfinals): 28-Serena Williams (US) bt 17-Anastasia Pavly-uchenkova (Russia) 7-5, 6-1; 9-Sam Stosur (Australia) bt 2-Vera Zvonareva (Russia) 6-3, 6-3.

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(Published 08 September 2011, 06:41 IST)

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