Rafael Nadal survives U.S. Open test from Sam Querrey

NEW YORK – In a hot, thick, excellent Labor Day match that flattered both players, No. 1 Rafael Nadal clawed through the rising Sam Querrey of Thousand Oaks by 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-3 in the fourth round of the U.S. Open, then predicted that Querrey has a glowing future.

With the 55th-ranked Querrey looking all grown up at 20, the match shone with quality, particularly in a colossus of a seventh game in the fourth set with Nadal serving at 4-2. As that game wore on and on, and Querrey’s arrival inside Arthur Ashe Stadium became ever more emphatic, Nadal fended off seven break points to hold service at the 3-hour 13-minute mark before a grateful crowd.

That game alone might constitute a memorable passage, but Querrey already had forged another, his implausible rally from a 6-2, 4-2, break-point deficit that won him the second set and made the third one hairy, forcing Nadal into the kind of trouble mostly unseen for him during his recent binge of 42 wins in 43 matches since May. He had to muddle through the middle of the match and summon a masterful third-set tiebreaker.

The reigning French Open and Wimbledon titlist even looked slightly haunted at times as Querrey’s mighty serve from 6 feet 6 and his improving groundstrokes hurried through the fast court on a windy day. That look eventually morphed into clear relief for Nadal and his normally stoic uncle, Toni Nadal, in the front row.

“Very tough,” Nadal said. “Sam is a big player, a big server. He has a great future.”

Querrey showed he belonged, and Nadal showed some rare turns of human frailty, his unforced errors outnumbering his winners, especially from the forehand side. Querrey, who in the second set had twice broken Nadal’s serve at love while climbing back from 4-2 and 5-3 deficits, also climbed from a break down in the third, leveling things at 4-4 when he broke Nadal at 15-40 when the latter pushed a weak second serve into the net.

So when the tiebreaker finally ended at 7-2 as the second of consecutive loose Querrey errors sailed long, Nadal allowed himself more than a fist pump. He leaped.

That advantage strongly hinted that Nadal would match his best U.S. Open showing by advancing to the quarterfinals. As a French Open champion the previous three years, the Spanish Godzilla had been tripped up in the fourth round in 2007 (by countryman David Ferrer), in the quarterfinals in 2006 (Mikhail Youzhny) and in the third round in 2005 (James Blake).

Yet even after Nadal’s leap, the fourth set had that seventh game, Querrey trying to compensate for a break in the previous game. Even in defeat there, the late bloomer from the Thousand Oaks High class of 2006 cemented an already heady U.S. Open that saw his first Grand Slam fourth round and a wipeout of No. 14 Ivo Karlovic in the third.

As a sign of Querrey’s toughness, Nadal bent over in an exultation one might reserve for a final, having just sent Querrey hurtling into the corner to lob a backhand that Nadal smashed away to end the toil.

It had got him to his second U.S. Open quarterfinal and a meeting with unseeded American Mardy Fish, who reached his second Grand Slam quarterfinal by rushing the net 69 times and winning 45 of the points in a commanding 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 win over French Open semifinalist Gael Monfils. Asked whether that tactic would persist against Nadal, Fish said, “Absolutely. Absolutely.”

Sixth-seeded Dinara Safina also made it into the quarters, beating Anna-Lena Groenefeld, 7-5, 6-0. No. 16 Flavia Pennetta won, defeating No. 32 Amelie Mauresmo, 6-3, 6-0.

Venus Williams was set to play by day and Serena Williams was ready at night. If they both win, the sisters will next meet in the quarterfinals.

The Associated Press contributed to this report