USO CC Day 10, Eve in The Apple

By Peter BodoPublished September 03, 2008

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 03: Andy Murray of Great Britain shakes hands with Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina after Murray won during Day 10 of the 2008 U.S. Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 3, 2008 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) — © 2008 Getty Images

Good evening. This is the extension Crisis Center, as our daytime US Open thread has again gone into overload mode. As always, please could you keep the subject of your conversations on the tennis at the USTABJKNTC until after all the matches are over. Afterwards it's OK to veer off-topic.

Earlier today, Dinara Safina progressed to the semifinals in straight sets over Flavia Pennetta.

Then in the first of the men's quarterfinals, Andy Murray took three hours and 58 minutes to win in four thrilling sets over Juan Martin Del Potro, 7-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-5. The new world number four (as of next Monday) thus reached his first career Grand Slam semifinal. There was a big media buildup about this being a "grudge match", after the two men exchanged words during their encounter in Rome. Reportedly they hadn't spoken since then, and Murray did nothing beforehand to dispel the idea of cool relations between them. However, the quality of the tennis today, and the high emotions running throughout, as momentum shifted continually, seemed to to burn away all such controversies, and the two players embraced with some warmth afterwards.

We are now just a few games into the quarterfinal between Venus and Serena Williams,with Venus having captured a break of serve. Afterwards world number one Rafael Nadal meets world nunber 35, Mardy Fish.

Enjoy the rest of the evening's tennis.

-- Rosangel Valenti