Nadal eliminates Murray to reach final

For all the leaks the U.S. Open sprung the past two weeks, there ultimately was no chink in the men's seedings or in the Super Saturday theatrics. Rafael Nadal's 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Andy Murray, which lasted well into last evening, assured that Monday's final will feature No. 2 Nadal against No. 1 Novak Djokovic, a five-set winner over Roger Federer earlier in the day.

The title match will be a reprise of last year's championship encounter, won by Nadal in a rugged four sets. But it also will be a new test for Nadal, who lost all five times he played Djokovic this year and has admitted that Djokovic is "in my head.''

"This year, I'm not having good luck against him,'' Nadal said of Djokovic. "I didn't find the solution yet, but I will try my best. I [will] try to play aggressive with my forehand and my serve.''

At least Nadal is going into the final feeling that he "played my best match this year'' against Murray, the No. 4 seed who remains a persistent threat to the top contenders but is 3-5 in major singles semifinals. The three times Murray advanced to a major championship match, he lost in straight sets -- twice to Federer, at the 2008 U.S. Open and 2010 Australian Open and once to Djokovic at this year's Australian.

Saturday, Murray didn't begin to build a head of steam until the third set. He already had come from two sets down in the Open's second round, but that was against 41st-ranked Dutchman Robin Haase. Against Nadal, a 10-time major tournament champion and only recently bumped from the top ranking by Djokovic, such a comeback was far less likely.

Especially when Nadal fought off a break point in the third game of the fourth set and broke Murray in the fourth game.

"For sure, the beginning of the fourth set was important, because Andy had a tougher match than me [Friday].'' Nadal said.

The obligatory rain delay, so common at this year's Open, pushed back the start of the day's action until almost 1:30 and, after the Djokovic-Federer match -- which lasted just short of four hours -- Nadal and Murray wrestled with each other for 3:24, until 9:10 p.m., postponing the night session for two hours. Typical for this year's strung-out Open.