Defending champion Rafael Nadal booked a U.S. Open title showdown against World No. 1 Novak Djokovic on Saturday with a bruising 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 win over British fourth seed Andy Murray.
Nadal, the second seed, will be playing in his 14th Grand Slam final on Monday in what will be a repeat of last year's final where he became the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam.
Djokovic, the Australian Open and Wimbledon champion, took his 2011 record to 63 wins against just two defeats, and reached a sixth career Grand Slam final, with a 6-7(7), 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 win over five-time champion Roger Federer.
In a repeat of his semifinal heroics of 2010, the Serb once again saved two match points to beat Federer.
Defeat in the final Grand Slam of the year also means Federer's streak of consecutive seasons with at least one major title ends at eight.
He claimed the last of his record 16 Grand Slam crowns at the 2010 Australian Open.
“I played my best match of this U.S. Open today,” said Nadal, the winner of 10 Grand Slam titles, after completing his 13th win in 17 meetings with Murray.
“I have played Novak five times this year, all in finals, and lost them all. I hope to have better luck this time and I hope New York will help me.”
Nadal made sure he could get the majority of support in the final by taking time to remember the victims of the September 11 attacks, ahead of the 10th anniversary on Sunday.
The Spaniard's victory was helped by Murray committing 55 unforced errors to his 23.
Defeat for Murray, who reached the semifinals of all four Grand Slams in 2011, means that Britain's long wait for a first major winner since Fred Perry in 1936 goes on.
Avenges defeat
Djokovic avenged his loss at the hands of Federer in the French Open semifinals, a defeat which ended his 43-match winning run.
Federer had appeared poised for victory after breaking Djokovic to love for a 5-3 lead in the fifth set — Djokovic's untimely double fault giving the Swiss triple break point in that game.
But when the Swiss great mustered double match point, Djokovic threw caution to the wind, pouncing on a 108 mile per hour Federer serve and belting the return back for a winner. “If it comes in, it comes in,” Djokovic said of his strategy at that point. “It's a risk. Last year, I was in a very similar situation. He was two match points up. I was hitting a forehand as hard as I can.
Wozniacki loses
Meanwhile, three-time champion Serena Williams stormed past World No. 1 Carolie Wozniacki to set up a showdown with Samantha Stosur in what promises to be an emotional U.S. Open women's final.
Williams, a 13-time Grand Slam champion, said she was thrilled to have a chance to represent America as the country commemorates the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks — an outrage that resonates in New York where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed.
“Especially with 9-11, it really meant a lot to me to come out here as an American and still be here and still be in the tournament,” Williams said after mauling the top-seeded Wozniacki 6-2, 6-4.
Stosur, the 2010 French Open runner-up, reached the second Grand Slam final of her career with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 victory over unseeded German Angelique Kerber.
