Rafael Nadal took another step towards history today with a 7-6, 7-6, 6-0 victory over Chile's Fernando Gonzales in a match that took almost 2 days to complete.
The stomach muscle injury that hampered Rafa's serve in his previous matches, also needing treatment in the second set against Gonzales on Thursday, was not evident today as Rafa quickly got into the swing of things taking the first four points, helped by four errors off Gonzales' serve, three of wich were off his best shot: his forehand.
Rafa was in no mood to hang around taking full advantage of those errors to win four straight points and then win a further three to close out the set all the while just giving up two points with a forehand going long and a serve into the net.
Afterwards Gonzales just collapsed under the pressure of playing the six Grand Slam champion, losing his serve on the first game of the third set. Rafa consolidated the break with a love service game.
Rafa then broke Gonzales for the second time in the set with Gonzales dumping a forehand into the net and then throwing his racket to the ground in anger with it landing by his chair in a mangled heap earning the Chilean a warning from the umpire.
After that it just went from bad to worse for Gozales as Rafa then served another love game that left Gonzales serving to stay in the match.
The game got off to a horrible start for the Chilean, and with that, he ultimately lost the match with yet another forehand error that landed right in the middle of the net and sending Rafa through to only the second semi final of his career at the US Open, the only Grand Slam to elude the Spaniard to date.
If Rafa plays like that tomorrow and Monday, it won't be long before he finally makes history and becomes only the third person to win a "Golden Slam," alongside Andre Agassi and Steffi Graff.
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