Fernando Verdasco rallied from two sets down to squeeze into the quarterfinals of the US Open, defeating 10th-seeded compatriot David Ferrer 5-7, 6-7(8), 6-3, 6-3, 7-6(4) in a gruelling fourth round match on Tuesday.
Awaiting him in the quarterfinals is top seed Rafael Nadal, who maintained his perfect record here this year by despatching 23rd seed Feliciano Lopez in straight sets. Nadal won 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
It looked like Ferrer had Verdasco's number on Tuesday, as he was his usual steady self even as his flashier compatriot went down two sets in a blaze of errors.
But Verdasco stormed back to win sets three and four.
The deciding set swung one way and then the next before it came down to another tiebreak. Ferrer jumped out into a 4-1 lead, but Verdasco reeled off six points in a row, clinching the win by running down a drop-shot to curl a forehand just inside the sideline.
At the end of it, Verdasco had hit 73 winners to Ferrer's 38.
“I hope that it is going to give me big confidence, this match,” the eighth seed said. “And also I hope to be 100 per cent physically after a tough match like today to play against a player like Nadal.”
Nadal is 10-0, head-to-head, over Verdasco.
Home hopes, meanwhile, were blown away by Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka who outlasted Sam Querrey in another marathon fourth round match.
Querrey's 7-6(9), 6-7(5), 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 defeat means that there will be no US player in the men's singles quarterfinals for the second year in a row.
The 20th-seeded Wawrinka joins Roger Federer in the last eight, making it the first time two Swiss players have reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam in the Open era.
Wawrinka's opponent for a place in the semifinals will be 12th-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny, who defeated Tommy Robredo of Spain 7-5, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
Querrey said: “Just a couple of points here and there. It was like every set was like that. Just really a couple of points in every set that made the difference,” he said.
Two-time champions Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams booked a semifinal showdown with hard-fought victories, struggling in windy conditions to overcome their toughest foes yet.
Clijsters, trying to become the first winner to repeat since Williams in 2001, struggled but stretched her Flushing Meadows win streak to 19 matches by ousting Australian fifth seed Samantha Stosur 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.
“I didn't play a good match but I was able to win it,” Clijsters said. ”Even after the match I was like, ‘How did I win this?' Next match everything will have to be a lot better.”
US third seed Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam champion who has not won a US Open crown since completing her back-to-back feat, beat sixth-seeded Roland Garros champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy 7-6(5), 6-4.
“I was trying to find a rhythm in the wind to get on top of it,” Williams said. “It was challenging. I don't think either of us were able to play our exact normal game. When the stakes were higher I was able to raise my game.”
Entering Friday's semifinal, Clijsters and Williams have split 12 matches, although Williams has lost their past four meetings, including a 2005 US Open quarterfinal and a fourth-round match last year that went three sets.
