Nadal makes US Open history as he zooms into the semi-final for the seventh time

Defending male US Open champion Rafael Nadal was forced to dig deep to beat ninth seed Dominic Thiem 0-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/5) in a thrilling US Open quarter-final.

The win saw the Spaniard advance to the final of the competition for the seventh time in his career.

With the victory, Nadal became the first player in the tournament’s entire history to drop the first set 6-0 – only to recover and win. He will face Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro (who beat John Isner 6-7, 6-3, 7-6, 6-2 to make the last four) in the semi-finals.

32 –year-old Nadal who is bidding for a fourth title in New York and 18th Grand Slam crown sounded quite apologetic after the game which lasted 4-hours 49-minutes.

The world number one will go into the semi-finals with Juan Martin Del Potro with added confidence after starting poorly in the first set in the contest with Dominic Thiem.

Del Potro has only been able to defeat Nadal in 5 games out of the 16 times both players have come up against each other, with his last victory coming at the Rio Olympics in 2016.