Serena Williams of the US during the match against Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, on Thursday. (AFP)

New York: Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Briton Andy Murray made up for lost time by demolishing their fourth round opponents in straight sets at the US Open on Thursday to remain on course for a blockbuster semi-final showdown.

The pair needed around two hours each to charge into the quarter finals when they were cleared to resume their matches after the rain and drizzle that washed out the last two days of the tournament was replaced by brilliant blue skies.

Nadal kept his title defence on track with a 7-6 6-1 6-2 victory over Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller while Murray breezed past American wildcard Donald Young 6-2 6-3 6-3.

American Andy Roddick, who was among a group of players that angrily complained about court conditions on Wednesday, again confronted officials after resuming his round of 16 clash with Spanish fifth seed David Ferrer at Louis Armstrong.

The players returned to the locker room as staff tried in vain to dry the court with towels and a vacuum before the match was eventually moved to an outside court with seating for less than 600 spectators.

“I’m baffled, I’m baffled. Find us a court,” Roddick snapped at officials. “At a certain point that has to take precedence over what people can watch.”

The two-day delay forced officials to hastily rearrange the schedule in a bid to finish the tournament on time and avoid slipping into a third week for a fourth straight year. Thursday’s schedule, which was originally supposed to be just two men’s quarter finals, was increased to 10 matches; the two men’s quarters; all four women’s quarters, featuring Serena Williams and world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki; and four men’s fourth round matches.

The men involved in the fourth-round clashes are the worst effected by the foul weather and they now face the daunting prospect of having to win four matches in four days to win the championship.

Nadal showed no signs of the cramping that caused him to collapse during his news conference after his last match as he overwhelmed Muller. The match resumed with Nadal trailing 3-0 but the Spaniard broke back and won the first set tiebreaker than ran away with the match. He plays the winner of the Roddick-Ferrer match.

Serena Williams struggled with her serve in the first set before finding the range to score a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia on Thursday to reach the semi-finals. The three-time winner lost serve three times in the opening set as the first six games went against serve before the American got on track, breaking the 17th-seeded Russian in the 12th game to end the opening set.

Also in the semi-finals was Australia’s Sam Stosur who overpowered Russia’s Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-3. Stosur extended her winning streak over Zvonareva to eight matches with an impressive display of hitting.

Meanwhile, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi were knocked out after they lost their quarter final match to Poland’s Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski. The sixth-seeded Polish duo won by 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) margin in an hour and 43 minutes against the fourth seeded Indian pair.