NEW YORK: Rafa Nadal flexed his muscles at the U.S. Open Thursday with a show of power rarely seen in the modern game.
Showing no mercy against his unseeded opponent, the Spaniard stormed into the quarter-finals with a ruthless display then led a player revolt that pressured organisers into rearranging the schedule after the two previous days were washed out by rain.
The defending champion was quick to express his displeasure after weather delays left him facing the daunting prospect of having to win four matches in as many days to retain his title.
“That’s not fair, but that’s what it is,” Nadal growled after thrashing Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller 7-6 6-1 6-2 in a little over two hours. “If you don’t have rest, you have a big chance not (to) be fit enough to play well (in) the next match.”
Andy Roddick and Andy Murray were also unhappy at the schedule, which they said favoured players in the top half of the draw, who would only have to play three times in four days.
Within hours, the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) announced they had bowed to the player’s demands.
The women’s final, originally scheduled for Saturday, was put back a day, while the men’s championship decider was shifted from Sunday, the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, to Monday, marking the fourth year in a row the last major of the year has gone into overtime.
“We revised the schedule for the remainder of the 2011 U.S. Open in an effort to be fair to the players and our ticketholders,” tournament director Jim Curley said in a statement. (Agencies)