Traditionally whoever leads the presidential poll on Labor Day goes on to win the race to the White House, and that race is now Al Gore's to lose. As for the US Open, if Pete Sampras gets to the final on Sunday, the title is almost certainly his.
He is now the highest seed remaining, Sweden's Magnus Norman, the number three, having lost 6-2, 6-7, 6-1, 6-3 to Germany's Nicolas Kiefer yesterday.
Norman, the beaten French Open finalist, had come back from the dead in the previous round against Max Mirnyi of Belarus, and saved five match points against the number 14 seed Kiefer, but the fleet-foot German was simply too good, moving on to the quarter-finals.
Kiefer, aged 23, is a wonderfully fluent player but given to fluctuating and unfathomable moods. Sven Groeneveld, formerly with Greg Rusedski, is working hard to bring consistency to Kiefer's game and this is clearly bearing fruit.
Kiefer will now meet sixth seed Marat Safin of Russia who overpowered 12th seeded Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero to storm into the quarter-finals.
Safin, who needed five sets to get through his two previous matches, crushed his good friend Ferrero 6-1 6-2 6-2 on Arthur Ashe Stadium court in one hour and 23 minutes.
The sixth seed belted 14 aces and saved all four break points he faced in the brief encounter with Ferrero. In the quarterfinals, Safin will take on 14th-seeded Kiefer.
Very few players have consistently troubled Sampras, the outstanding exception being Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands, the third-round conqueror of Tim Henman here, who holds a 6-3 advantage over the American, including a famous straight-sets victory in the 1996 Wimbledon quarterfinals when the Dutchman went on to win his one and only grand slam title.
Their 10th meeting, here in New York tonight, is seen by many as Sampras's last obstacle to winning a 14th slam title and fifth US Open, although Australia's 19-year-old Lleyton Hewitt, who beat Sampras at Queen's, would disagree.
Hewitt, who made impressively short work of Sweden's Thomas Enqvist, the number seven seed, in the fourth round, winning 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, plays the Frenchman Arnaud Clement today for the chance to meet Sampras or Krajicek in Saturday's semi-finals - the US Open's "Super Saturday" when both men's semis are played back-to-back, followed by the women's final.
The enervatingly humid weather was in the process of being swept away by a northerly airflow as Sampras completed a 7-6, 62, 6-4 fourth-round win over the South Korean qualifier Hyung-Taik Lee, while Krajicek polished off Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty 7-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Until the Cincinnati tournament last year Krajicek had totted up four successive wins over Sampras over a period of three years.
"The key to the match will be who puts the greater pressure on the serve, who returns the better," said Sampras. "Obviously Richard has a huge service and backs it up with some good volleys."
The Arthur Ashe court, the main stadium here, is playing more quickly this year, making it all the more difficult to break service. In particular Sampras will be looking to exploit the Dutchman's second serve.
Krajicek's career has been consistently hindered by knee injuries and, as he approaches his 29th birthday in December, he knows full well that this could be one of his last chances to add a second slam title to his Wimbledon victory.
He is currently ranked just outside the top 20 but Sampras takes little notice of this statistic. "When he's on form, Richard is a top-five player," said the American. "He possesses some heavy heat. Hopefully I can control it."
In the women's event third seed Venus Williams overcame a lethargic start to book her passage into the semi-finals with a 6-4 16 6-1 victory over eighth seed Nathalie Tauziat of France.
Williams, who has never been stopped prior to the semi-finals in four US Open campaigns, extended her current winning streak to 24 matches with yesterday's triumph over the veteran serve and volleyer.
The 32-year-old Tauziat was the first player to take a set from Williams at this Open. The 20-year-old American has dropped just four sets during her current winning streak, which began with Wimbledon and includes hardcourt titles at Stanford, San Diego and New Haven.
In the semi-finals, Williams will face either top seed Martina Hingis or sixth seed Monica Seles, who were set to tangle last night.
A big match today will be another quarter-final between Lindsay Davenport and the other Williams sister, Serena, the reigning US Open champion. Williams beat Davenport in last year's semi-final and has won five of their six meetings.
The match-up of US Olympic team-mates will decide a berth in Friday's semi-finals opposite either 10th seed Anke Huber of Germany or 25th-ranked Russian teen Elena Dementieva. "You have to be very up for it," Davenport said. "Most of us have a good feeling that whoever wins that match, there's an easier match maybe in the semi-finals, that this match is a really tough one to get through."
Williams (18) has won five matches in a row over Davenport since losing their first meeting, including 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 last month at the WTA Los Angeles final and 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 here last year in a US Open semi-final.
"I was pretty good at getting over that loss," Davenport said. "It was tough. But you like to see the tide turn eventually. Hopefully one of these days I can come through."
