Americans aren’t legion at U.S. Open, but Venus Williams is still around

Reporting from New York — 

There will be a rematch. Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams will play again at the U.S. Open, on Friday, in the semifinals.

There will be left-handed Spaniards. Fernando Verdasco and Rafael Nadal, both lefties, will hook up in a men’s quarterfinal.

There won’t be any American men in the singles. Sam Querrey’s bid to make the final eight was scuttled by a quirky wind, cramping legs and a sturdy man from Switzerland who wasn’t named Roger Federer but who was quite happy to make it Switzerland 2, USA 0 in the quarterfinals.

Here’s how everybody got there Tuesday.

Mostly the winners wrangled an unpredictable, gusty wind that took tennis balls and made them more like snowflakes, illusory and falling in unexpected places.

Third-seeded Williams, 30 years old and nine years away from her last U.S. Open title, handled the clever pacing from sixth-seeded Francesca Schiavone and won, 7-6 (5), 6-4, in 1 hour 54 minutes.

Then the second-seeded Clijsters, who is the defending champion, withstood the athletic Samantha Stosur, who was seeded fifth, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Clijsters and Williams are 6-6 against each other in their careers but Clijsters has won the last four meetings, including a 6-0, 0-6, 6-4 upset of Williams in the fourth round of the Open last year.

Verdasco, who is seeded eighth, overcame a two-set deficit for only the second time in his career and beat another Spaniard, 10th-seeded David Ferrer, 5-7, 7-6 (8), 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (4). The winning shot after 4 hours 23 minutes? A running forehand that curved around the net post.

Top-seeded Nadal had it much easier. His match started at 11:07 p.m. in New York and it ended about as quickly as possible, with Nadal beating 23rd-seeded Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

That was a shorter match than the one played, and lost, by Querrey, the 22-year-old from Thousand Oaks who had a chance to advance to his first Grand Slam tournament quarterfinal, with a real opportunity to move to the semifinals.

But as quickly as Stanislas Wawrinka chipped a service return and snapped off a sneaky volley, a weary Querrey ended up the dejected loser, 7-6 (9), 6-7 (5), 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. The exit of the 20th-seeded Querrey means there are no American men left in the draw.

This is the second year in a row no American man has made it to the quarterfinals. Querrey’s loss also means that only one American got to a Grand Slam quarterfinal this year ( Andy Roddick at the Australian Open), the first time since 1925 that fewer than two have gone so far. “It’s annoying,” Querrey said. “The Europeans are in the quarters every Slam.”

Williams, who hadn’t played since Wimbledon because of a right knee injury, prompted Clijsters to think that taking a summer vacation after Wimbledon was a good thing.

“The way she has mentally looked,” Clijsters said, “I think it’s maybe been good for her to have been away for that long. She looks more hungry than ever.”

Williams said the wind played havoc with everything. “I couldn’t even warm up my serve because the wind was blowing my toss,” she said. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, what are we in for today?’”

Wednesday’s featured matches

At 10 a.m. PDT in Arthur Ashe Stadium, seventh-seeded Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva of Russia against 31st-seeded Kaia Kanepi of Estonia; third-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia against 17th-seeded Gael Monfils of France. Beginning at 4 p.m., top-seeded 2009 finalist Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark against unseeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia followed by five-time champion and second-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland against fifth-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden.

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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