A severe storm at Flushing Meadow yesterday did what Russian teenager Marat Safin could not - slow Pete Sampras' relentless march toward Grand Slam history. A rain delay of more than two hours lasted longer than the world number one's dismantling of the talented 18-year-old US Open debutant, with a 6-4 6-3 6-2 victory in just 77 minutes' playing time.
The top-seeded Sampras, four times champion here in the 1990s, is now just three victories away from equalling Australian Roy Emerson's men's record of 12 grand slam singles titles.
Sampras used his typical deadly service placement to keep Safin from getting any kind of sustained momentum. He belted 18 aces and numerous service winners for the match and needed a mere six second serves in a dominant third set performance.
The top seed was leading 6-4 21 when the sky turned black, an extremely strong wind kicked up and the players were ushered off just ahead of torrential rain.
Safin, who made a splash in his Grand Slam debut at the French Open with wins over Andre Agassi and former Roland Garros champion Gustavo Kuerten, appeared far more tentative after the break. It was as if the huge-hitting Russian suddenly realised who was across the net.
Safin managed to save two break points to reach 2-2 in the second, but it was pretty much downhill from there for the 60th ranked upstart.
Sampras held his next service game on a 130 mph ace and then got the only break he needed to take the second set in the sixth game with the help of two Safin double faults.
In the third set, Safin was able to hold his first two service games to lead 2-1. But the best player in the world just turned up the heat from there, reeling off the next five games to move into the quarter-finals for the seventh time in his brilliant career.
Fifth-seeded Venus Williams reached the women's singles quarter-finals when she defeated twelfth-seeded Mary Pierce 6-1, 76 (7/4). But Pierce, who has never got further than the quarter-finals in six previous visits, was infuriatingly erratic.
After 25 minutes she had won only one of the first eight games and made 22 unforced errors against just two by Williams who played throughout with an enormous protective bandage on her left knee - a tongue in cheek way of expressing her displeasure that Pierce retired with an alleged knee injury while trailing 0-4 in the third set when they played recently in San Diego.
But when play restarted she fought superbly to force a second set tie-break and looked certain to play a third set when she surged 41 clear. Williams, however, won the next six points.
Seventh-seeded Conchita Martinez crashed out when she was beaten in a three-set marathon by Amanda Coetzer, the 13th seed. Clearly hampered by a neck injury, Martinez went down 6-4, 46, 6-2 in a gruelling two-and-a-half hour showdown.
