Juan Martin del Potro was aching for a second crack at a Grand Slam semifinal, a second chance to prove he has what it takes to win at that stage.
By early last night, he knew he would get that opportunity at the U.S. Open, thanks to a wind-swept 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 quarterfinal victory over 16th-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia.
What the sixth-seeded del Potro still didn't know several hours later, as rain washed over Flushing Meadows: The opponent he will have to beat to reach his first Grand Slam final.
That's because the quarterfinal between Rafael Nadal, a six-time major champion, and Fernando Gonzalez, the 2007 Australian Open runner-up, was interrupted by showers.
The first delay, of about 75 minutes, came at 2-2 in the second set, after Nadal won the opening set in a tiebreaker. The second delay came while Nadal led 3-2 in the second-set tiebreaker.
As of 11 p.m., rain was still falling, and Nadal and Gonzalez were still in the locker room.
And del Potro was still waiting.
The breaks might have been most helpful to Nadal, who called for a trainer after the first set. It appeared Nadal was being checked for a flare-up of a stomach muscle problem that bothered him earlier in the tournament.
"In the first set, it was very, very bad," Nadal's uncle and coach, Toni, said in a second-set interview with ESPN2, which was televising the match. "Now it's a little better. It's difficult."
Earlier in the day, del Potro did a much better job than Cilic of dealing with the conditions, which included swirling winds that reached 20 mph.
They are quite similar: Both are 6-6, both have big serves, both have seemingly unlimited potential. And they were born five days apart in 1988, making them the two youngest players ranked in the top 20.
Cilic began brilliantly on this day, racing to a lead of a set and a break. But he started missing more and more, while del Potro stayed steady enough to claim 17 of the last 20 games.
Del Potro has been thinking about this year's French Open, where he reached the semifinals and took a 2-1 lead in sets against Roger Federer. Del Potro let that slip away. He wasn't about to have the same thing happen yesterday.
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