Top seed Rafael Nadal continued his overpowering path through the U.S. Open draw on Saturday with a 6-4 6-3 6-0 third-round victory over Serbian Viktor Troicki.

The world number one, trailed 3-1 in the second set and won 11 straight games to clinch another dominant win. 

Serving well, world number 71 Troicki caused Rafa some issues early on the set but the Spaniard snatched a break in the 10th game to take the opening set.The Serbian caused a ripple of excitement when he broke on the way to a 3-1 lead in the second set, but Rafael reacted by moving through the gears to roar home and set up a fourth-round battle with American Sam Querrey, who upset 14th seed Ivo Karlovic.

After a tough start against German Bjorn Phau in the first round, Rafa has improved with each match and said that he is beginning to approach top form.

"I am starting to play better," Rafa told reporters after clinching his 41st win in his past 42 matches.

"Today I played better than the last days. I started playing well and today I served very well."Having added Olympic gold to his two grand slam titles this year, Rafa is a serious contender for this years crown. 

His later than usual arrival in New York, meant he has taken more time to find his feet."The truth is that I was practising much better yesterday than the (first few) days," Rafa said. "I think I am ready to play a good match in the fourth round. I know I have to play a good match if I wan

Rafa Nadal overpowered American qualifier Ryler DeHeart 6-1 6-2 6-4 on Thursday to reach the third round of the U.S. Open.

Top-seeded Rafa, who was pushed to two tiebreakers by German qualifier Bjorn Phau in the first round, blasted his way past DeHeart, losing serve just once in the battle of left-handers that closed the fourth day of play.

The 22-year-old Spaniard was in total command, landing 70 percent of his first serves and facing just one break point from the DeHeart, who cashed it in and led 3-0 in the third set

Rafa brought the 24-year-old American, ranked 261 and playing in his first grand slam, back to earth by winning the next five games and then closing out the match with a sizzling forehand winner to serve out his victory.

"The important thing was I had to come back in the third set and I'm happy with the victory," said Rafa.

The Spaniard had complained of fatigue after his opening match on Monday, a hangover from a busy season that included title runs at the French, Wimbledon and Beijing Olympics.

He was full of energy against DeHeart on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court, needing only 19 minutes to claim the first set and less than an hour to take a two-sets lead.

"I forgot a little bit about tennis," the revitalised Spaniard said about his time off. "I played golf on Tuesday.

"Now I'm in the third round. I'm happy. For me it's a very important tournament here," said Rafa, who was eliminated in the fourth round last year.

Rafael winner of 40 of his last 41 matches, next meets 71st-ranked Viktor Troicki of Serbia.

"I have to improve for the next round," he said. "I have a tough opponent, Troicki. He is a good server."

Top seed, Rafa Nadal played qualifier Bjorn Phau at the U.S. Open on Monday and advanced to the second round of the last Grand Slam of the year— it just took a little longer than some may have anticipated.

Rafa's 7-6 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over Bjorn Phau of Germany, a qualifier, took nearly 3 hours. Ranked 136th in the world, Phau has never advanced past the second round of the Open

With Rafa serving for the match, Phau took advantage of erratic play from the No. 1 seed, breaking back and eventually forcing a second tie break in the third set.

That the match was close for a straight-setter had as much to do with Nadal’s 35 unforced errors as Phau’s attacking style. Rafa seemed to get off to a slow start, trying to feel out his opponent. At one point the world No. 1 called a trainer to tape a blister on his left foot.

The first set was particularly close.

It could have gone either way but Rafa's experience showed as he clinched the breaker 7-4. A solitary break, which gave Rafa 4-2 lead, settled the second set while the third featured some late drama.

It looked as though Rafa had made the decisive breakthrough when he broke Phau for a 5-4 lead but the French Open and Wimbledon champion buckled when serving for the match and promptly lost his own delivery.

He held points to break again at 5-5 but some inspired play saw Phau hold on and take it to another tie-break.

Rafa continued to labour but a number of unforced errors from his opponent allowed him to claim the match in straight sets.

He will now play Ryler De Heart or Olivier Rochus.

Newly-crowned world number one Rafa Nadal will launch his assault on the US Open trophy with an opening round match against a qualifier, after the draw ceremony in New York on Thursday.

Rafa is looking to clinch his third Grand Slam tournament this season. However, there is a long way to go: He could meet big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic, the number 13 seed, in the third-round with a potential quarter-final clash with David Nalbandian. In the semis he could face Spain's David Ferrer, the number four seed.

Second seed Federer, gunning for his fifth straight title, is up against 114th-ranked Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina.

Awaiting the Swiss in the last four is Serbian Novak Djokovic, the reigning Australian Open champion and a runner-up finish in Flushing Meadows last year.

In the first round, Djokovic, the number three seed, drew Frenchman Arnaud Clement, who reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in July.

RAFA'S BLOG  

TIMESONLINE.COM

Rafa took you every step of the way in this blog as he won Wimbledon this summer after an epic final against Roger Federer. Since then, he's knocked his fiercest rival off the No 1 spot and added an Olympic gold medal to his already overspilling trophy cabinet.

You'll be pleased to know that the man from Manacor will return to Times Online on Sunday evening, giving you the daily lowdown on his quest to win the US Open and once again answering your questions, which you can e-mail to him here.

Rafa Nadal celebrated his first day as Olympic champion and the new world No 1 by flying to New York. In typical Rafa fashion, he was already focused on his next goal of improving his very record in the US Open, which begins next week.

Reflecting properly on what he has already achieved will for him have to wait.

The Olympic title was his eighth of 2008 and the 31st of his career. He is the highest-ranked player to win the men's singles at the Games, in his record 160th and last week as the number two, before being the first left-hander for ten years to get to the top of the rankings – despite still considering Roger Federer to be better.

Having become the first player since Bjorn Borg 28 years ago to win at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon, Rafa managed a great feat by adding an Olympic gold medal. While not Steffi Graf's Golden Grand Slam from 1988, it is still exceptional in modern men's tennis.

It is not just the growing status of the Olympics among the leading tennis players that counted for Rafa. It is also the hard courts the event was played on. Since the US Open switched to that surface at Flushing Meadows in 1978, no man has succeeded in winning there as well as at the summer's clay and grass court grand slams.

To collect major titles on three different surfaces was particularly difficult for Rafa, whose results on hard courts have not matched those elsewhere. When he won Wimbledon last month, it was in his third consecutive final there. At the US Open, he has only got to the quarter-finals once in five attempts so far, and never further.

Reaching the top of the podium in Beijing required Rafa to get past Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, against whom he now has a 10-4 winning record but with all the defeats coming in their previous five meetings on hard courts. And he had lost both his matches before on the surface against Fernando Gonzalez, his final opponent.

The increasingly fine footwork and tremendous speed around the court that make Rafa at last a serious contender at Flushing Meadows were all the more notable in Beijing as he arrived exhausted from all his earlier exertions this year and struggled through his opening match, losing a set to Potito Starace, an unremarkable Italian.

Following his victory in the gold medal match, Rafa was provided by his kit sponsor, Nike, with a T-shirt which had written on the front, in gold Chinese characters on a red background, 'The Greater the Opponent, The Greater the Victory'. At the Olympics, the greatest opponents Rafa overcame were fatigue and his own body.

"When I got to Beijing I was incredibly tired and the first few days practicing were very hard" admitted Rafa. "The only reason I was able to win was the lift I got from living in the Olympic village. Being among many other great athletes was fantastic. And the support I got from the rest of the Spanish team was amazing.

"Although they don't know it, it was thanks to them that I somehow found the energy and mental strength to get the gold medal. I would not have been able to manage this from a hotel, however luxurious it was. The feeling at the end on the podium was indescribable. I am very happy to have made it to Olympic champion.

"The Olympic Games are very special. I know in tennis the grand slams are a little bit more important. But here you only have one chance every four years. For sportsmen, the Olympic Games are more important than anything. I feel like I win for all my country. That's more special, no? I win for a lot of people, not only for me.

"I enjoyed it a lot more than a normal tournament" added Rafa, who relished rather than resented being the most popular Olympic village resident, constantly being asked for autographs, photos and swapping Games pins. His one regret is the picture he had taken with the similarly in-demand Michael Phelps.

"It was a pleasure to meet him and speak with him" said Rafa. "But I would like to see him again. As, in the photograph I had taken with him, I came out very badly. It would be good to have another, better photograph." London in 2012 beckons.

Rafa Nadal will celebrate his rise to the top of the world on Monday as the new Olympic champion after a straight sets victory over Chilean Fernando Gonzalez in Beijing on Sunday.

The irresistible Spaniard triumphed 6-3 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 to secure another high point in his remarkable season and send him off to the US Open in style as he bids to claim his third Grand Slam crown in a row.

Rafa will finally overtake Roger Federer as world number one when the next ATP rankings are announced on Monday the 18th of August.

THE MATCH

The 22-year-old has embraced the Beijing experience and has stayed in the athletes' village, despite all the attention that entails. Last night he threw himself onto the court to celebrate a match, highlighted by his 25 forehand winners, that lasted two hours and 22 minutes.

Rafael was simply red hot in the first set but got lucky in the second when Gonzalez, who stood toe-to-toe with the 22-year-old, fluffed an easy backhand volley on set point.

Rafael needed no second invitation and moved in for the kill as Gonzalez began to buckle. He then hung on at 2-5 in the third set, saving three match points, but it was only delaying the inevitable and Rafa converted his fourth chance in the next game.

• With this victory Rafa becomes the first Spaniard to win an Olympic gold in tennis.
• The 28-year-old Gonzalez now has the full set of Olympic medals after his doubles victory in Athens four years ago, when he also took bronze in singles.
• Serbia's Novak Djokovic completed the podium after beating American James Blake in the bronze medal match.

Vamos Rafa!

Rafa Nadal will play Fernando Gonzalez of Chile for the chance to win the Olympic tennis gold medal after both came through epic semifinals on Friday.

Rafa, who takes over the world number one ranking on Monday, beat third ranked Novak Djokovic of Serbia, 6-4 1-6 6-4, overcoming the loss of the middle set to win in two hours 10 minutes.

It will be the first Olympic medal for Rafael who closed out the match in dramatic fashion.

On match point he miraculously scrambled to retrieve two overhead slams by Djokovic. When the flustered Serb shanked a third overhead wide, Nadal collapsed to the hard court in jubilation.

With the victory, Rafa now leads 10-4 over Djokovic in career and is now just one match away from adding the gold medal to this season's seven-trophy haul including the French Open and Wimbledon.

"For me it's a dream have be in this final," he said. "When I arrived here, I didn't expect be in the final. I was very tired, with a lot of matches and not playing my best tennis.

"But during the week I've felt better and better. So today was very important. Even if I lose the final I'll have one medal for me and for my country."

Rafa Nadal cruised past Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-0, 6-4 in the pair’s first career meeting on Center Court. The quarterfinal match, which finished at 1:12am local time, had been pushed back after rain had delayed the start of day five’s play by over three hours.

Melzer won just nine points in the first set, which Rafa won in 24 minutes, and despite breaking the left-handed Mallorcan once in the second set Rafa proved too much to handle. He dropped nine points on serve and hit 12 winners and committed 18 unforced errors for victory in 63 minutes.

Rafa, who also competed at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the doubles competition (w/Moya), improved his season record to an ATP-best 68-8. The 22-year-old this year has seven ATP titles, which includes Roland Garros and Wimbledon crowns. He will be attempting to reach his 39th ATP final on Friday. 

He will next meet Servian Novak Djokovic in the last four, who he leads 9-4 in head to head encounters (2-4 on hard courts), but Djokovic won their most recent clash 6-1, 7-5 in the semifinals of ATP Masters Series Cincinnati earlier this month.

From ATPtennis.com

RAFA'S POST MATCH PRESS CONFERENCE

R. NADAL/J. Melzer 6-0, 6-4 

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. 

Q. Talk about your quarterfinal match. RAFAEL NADAL: Yes, I am playing well, no? Very happy for be in the semifinals. Very happy because I played today very well, no? So that's very important victory for me. Continuing being in the semifinals in another tournament is very good news, no? Still playing maybe my best level. 

Q. How surprised are you by Roger's defeat? RAFAEL NADAL: For sure is a surprise, no? No. 1 of the world lost. But the tennis always is very close, no? The level is very close. The match is decide in a few points a lot of times. Well, sometimes happens something like this. Sorry for him. But, you know, that's the tennis. Everybody lose, no? Disappointing for everybody. I am playing my best careera, my best season in my life. I play 15 tournaments, and I lost in eight. So more than 50% of the times I lost in a tournament. So the tennis is like this. 

Q. You've been comfortable on clay and grass over two or three years. Are you now as comfortable on hard courts in terms of your footwork and general comfort? RAFAEL NADAL: I don't know, no? I am happy because I am playing very well. So that's very important for me. But I had very good results in the past on the hard court, too, no? So that's nothing new for me to play good in this surface. But I am playing good. And when I am playing good, I can play good in all surfaces, no? 

Q. In the semifinals you will play Novak Djokovic. What do you expect in that match? RAFAEL NADAL: I expect a very, very tough match, no? I play against the No. 3 player of the world. This year he is the best player on this surface. He had the better results in this surface. So I have to play my best tennis, no? I lost against him one week and a half ago. I know how difficult is play against him. But if I play my best tennis, I beat him sometimes. So I hope play my best tennis and have chances for win. 

Q. Your headband and your wristband. Are you familiar with the Color Orange campaign? It's a protest group. Just wondering, is there any particular choice for that color? RAFAEL NADAL: Is the colors of Spain. That's the reason. I don't know nothing. I respect everybody. I never was involved in politic things. I think the bandana and the wristbands is yellow. But when I am sweat, is turn orange. That's not my intention. Nothing of this.

Rafa Nadal moved closer to another tennis title on Wednesday, advancing to the quarter-finals at the Beijing Olympics.

The current world number 2, (till Monday the 18th that is) dominated the match, which he won in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 in Beijing over Igor Andreev.

Rafa was challnged by Andreev in the first set. With both players battling in the muggy conditions, Rafael finally broke a 3-3 tie following a frantic baseline exchange. Leading 5-4, Rafa then thwarted four break points to keep the Russian at bay.

Deflated, Andreev was broken twice early in the second set and never threatened again.

Rafa will now face Austria's Jurgen Melzer, a straight-sets winner over Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun. "I am playing close to my best level," Rafa said. "My goal is try to continuing playing like this."

Rafa has won the last two Grand Slam events, including his epic five-set thriller over Federer at Wimbledon. He has also won five of his last six tournaments.

Going for gold

Rafael silenced his critics who questioned his hardcourt skills after capturing the Rogers Cup in Toronto in July. Once considered just the king of clay, the 22-year-old Spaniard has shown his versatility by winning on any surface.

"Not only does Rafael own a plethora of attacking shots, he is without question the best defender on tour," said CBC Sports tennis analyst Mike Cvitkovic.

"In speaking with him in July at the Rogers Cup, Rafa said he still feels that he has a long way to go in becoming a complete player. While the top ranking may be in the cards this year, his next goal is to win a gold medal in Beijing."

Rafa Nadal continued his march towards Beijing Olympic honours with a 6-1, 6-2, win over former world No.1, Lleyton Hewitt on Tuesday. 

Rafael, who will take over the top ranking on Monday was ruthless as he handed the Australian a comprehensive defeat to reach the third round. "I'm very happy about my performance," said Rafa after his victory. "I think I play one of my best matches in the last weeks on hard court."Rafa breezed through the opening set in just 45 minutes, breaking the Australian one in the fourth and sixth games as Hewitt was forced into the corner's by Rafa's powerful baseline shots.

Hewitt saved three set points before Rafa closed out the opening set and the second set followed the same pattern as the Australian struggled to find a way back into the game.

Hewitt did manage to break Rafa in the second game of the second set but that was as good as it got as the Spaniard closed out the match in 90 minutes.

Rafa meets Russia's Igor Andreev in the next round and added: 'Andreev hits the ball very hard, he has a big forehand and a good serve.

'He played well a couple of weeks ago in Toronto. I defeated him there and will try to do it again.'

Third seed Novak Djokovic joined Rafa in the third round with a 6-4 6-2 triumph over Rainer Schuettler of Germany, while David Nalbandian ended the hopes of defending champion Nicolas Massu with a 7-6 (7/0) 6-1 victory.