Weather is a damper on Nadal's hopes

Rafael Nadal sits under an umbrella during his rain-interrupted match with Fernando Gonzalez.

Spare a thought for Rafael Nadal as relentless rain made a mess of the conclusion of the US Open for the second successive year, delaying the men's singles final until tomorrow at the earliest. Nadal, world No 1 until he was struck down in full flow by tendinitis in both knees, had been easing himself back into form and fitness at the US Open until a deluge swamped the Arthur Ashe Stadium midway through his quarter-final against the 11th-seeded Chilean Fernando Gonzalez.

Unable to complete that match on schedule on Thursday evening, Nadal and Gonzalez - as well as all four survivors in the women's draw - watched frustratingly throughout Friday's washout and were left to ponder before yesterday's resumption how badly their title chances had been hit by the weather. Nadal was similarly affected at Wimbledon two years ago as he played catch-up during the second week as his chief rival and defending champion Roger Federer enjoyed an uninterrupted passage into the business end of the championship.

Federer, seeking a sixth successive triumph at Flushing Meadows, has been resting up since Wednesday evening, contemplating his record-extending achievement of reaching a 22nd successive grand slam semi-final where he will eventually play world No 4 Novak Djokovic. Weather permitting, Federer and Djokovic will clash for the 13th time today. The elegant Swiss has won eight of the previous 12 encounters, most poignantly in straight sets in the final of this tournament in 2007, although two of the sets were decided by tie break.

After their duel, Nadal, who overcame the rain and Gonzalez 7-6, 7-6, 6-0 last night, will play the formidable figure of Juan Martin Del Potro, the towering and highly-rated Argentine. The rain delays and the possibility of an exhausting finish to his New York fortnight have been a contributory factor towards Nadal making what, for him, is always a heart-rending decision to withdraw from a Spanish Davis Cup assignment.

A nagging abdominal strain, which has affected his mobility at a time when he maintains that his dodgy knees are working perfectly, is the main reason why he is missing that semi-final clash against Israel. Juan Carlos Ferrero, the world No 25, has been called up as a replacement. The whole affair is deeply embarrassing to those in authority at the US National Tennis Centre who are presiding over chaos yet again and starting to get the type of earache their counterparts at Wimbledon endured before a roof was finally erected over the Centre Court for this year's All England Club showpiece.

Nobody is more adept at giving his targets earache than the original "Superbrat" John McEnroe, four times a champion at Flushing Meadows. McEnroe, 50, is quick to point out that his criticism is nothing new -he began campaigning for a roof in 1997 when the 23,000- seat Arthur Ashe Stadium was rebuilt to replace the Louis Armstrong arena. "It seemed like a no-brainer but people at the US Tennis Association decided they wanted to build the biggest stadium they could build," said McEnroe.

"For the same price they could have had a slightly smaller stadium and had a roof." Exploratory talks took place last year regarding the construction of a US$100million (Dh367m) roof but there has been no progress since, much to the irritation of McEnroe, who campaigned just as vigorously for continuous play at Wimbledon where he triumphed three times in the 1980s. "I know they say it doesn't rain as much here in New York as it does in London," added McEnroe. "But now they're in a big hole, because they have the biggest tennis stadium in the world and the expense to build a roof over it is so big that they don't want to lay it out."

Consequently the traditional New York "Super Saturday" again becomes "Super Sunday" with the men's semis flanking the women's final and the men's final being provisionally scheduled for Monday. That is assuming there is no more rain. [e-mail]