Nerveless Nadal survives

Nadal: Big-point specialist

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Spanish top seed Rafael Nadal survived a mid-match wobble before beating unseeded American Sam Querrrey in four sets to reach the US Open quarter-finals.

The world number one came through 6-2 5-7 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 in front of a raucously partisan New York crowd.

Querrey matched Nadal blow for blow but crucially took advantage of just four of 15 break points, as the Wimbledon champion held his nerve on the big points time after time.

After a straightforward opening set, Nadal was pushed hard by the 20-year-old throughout the rest of the match.

Heroics

It initially looked like Querrey would be unable to repeat his heroics from the last round, when he stunned 14th seed Ivo Karlovic in their third-round encounter.

But after Nadal had been dominant in the first set Querrey settled into the pace of the game, breaking consecutive Nadal service games at the end of the second set to win 5-7 and tie the match.

After stuttering at the start of the third, the American fought back again from 4-2 down to take a 6-5 lead in the set.

But Nadal held his nerve to take the lead after a tie-break, and after the Spaniard broke midway through the fourth set to move ahead 4-2 he was able to hold off the American's challenge to seal the win.

Nadal told a courtside interviewer: "I had some problems at 5-4 with my serve, with the wind - I played a terrible game. But later he played very well and I played a very good tiebreak, so I am very happy for this win."

Fish on the menu

Nadal will face unseeded Mardy Fish in the last eight after the American ruined Gael Monfils's 22nd birthday celebrations by handing the French 32nd seed a 7-5 6-2 6-2 drubbing.

After seeing off seeds Paul-Henri Mathieu and James Blake in the previous two rounds, the 35th-ranked American kept up his run by meting out similar treatment to Monfils.

Fish insists he is undaunted at the prospect of facing Nadal. "I feel like a guy with my style of play is someone that he doesn't want to see," said the 26-year-old.

"If he's on the other side of the net, I'm going to come in and I'm going to, not necessarily a Kamikaze type tennis, but I'm going to try to keep the points as short as possible."