Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki reached the U.S. Open women's semifinals with straight-set wins, while Novak Djokovic moved into the men's final four on a day when both singles finals were pushed back a day because of rain delays.
Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick and John Isner all won men's fourth-round matches today at the National Tennis Center in New York, where rain prevented any matches from being completed the previous two days.
As a result of the delays, the women's championship is now scheduled to conclude on Sept. 11 with the men's final a day later. It will be the fourth straight year the tennis season's final Grand Slam event will enter a third week.
Samantha Stosur, the No. 9 seeded woman from Australia, and unseeded German Angelique Kerber also reached the women's semifinals with wins today.
Five-time U.S. Open champion Roger Federer, the No. 3 seed from Switzerland, plays today's last match against No. 11 Jo- Wilfried Tsonga of France in Arthur Ashe Stadium. The winner will face top-seeded Djokovic for a place in the final.
Although rain hasn't hampered today's play, the match between 21st-seeded Roddick and David Ferrer was delayed an hour and moved to a new court because of a water-damaged surface in Louis Armstrong Stadium. The No. 2 court at the National Tennis Center was shut down until further notice.
Roddick Advances
Roddick of the U.S. wound up beating the fifth-seeded Ferrer of Spain 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 on the 584-seat Court 13 to reach the quarterfinals. Isner advanced to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal with a 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4) win over Gilles Simon of France.
Roddick, who had 19 aces while winning 17 of 19 service games in the 2-hour, 39-minute match, celebrated by walking the length of the court while slapping hands with fans who lined the boundaries.
Prior to today, Roddick hadn't played a U.S. Open contest outside the 23,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium in more than nine years. He said today's experience included hearing "some Van Morrison wannabe playing music," someone screaming in the courtyard, a man scaling a nearby fence and a couple of people giving commentary from the service line.
