Sports

Murray loss clears path to finals for Nadal

With all his accomplishments, Rafael Nadal never has made it to a U.S. Open finals. With Andy Murray out of the way, Nadal’s path to Sunday is now wide Open.

The second-seeded Murray, playing great summer tennis and seemingly on a collision course to meet Nadal in the semifinals, stunningly was bounced out in the fourth round by No. 16 Marin Cilic yesterday afternoon in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2.

In the night, Nadal, after losing the first set, showed his trademark stamina and wore down the dangerous and speedy Parisian Gael Monfils, who became flat-out exhausted during a 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 fourth-round defeat at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

There was a scary moment after the Nadal match when a fan rushed onto the court, took Nadal’s picture and appeared to hug him before being whisked away like another Nadal opponent.

The third-seeded Nadal faces No. 11 Fernando Gonzalez in the quarterfinals. The other quarterfinal on Nadal’s half of the draw is Juan Martin del Potro vs. Cilic.

Even with Nadal’s disjointed summer, sore knees and abdominal strain (his stomach area was wrapped in tape), this is Nadal’s chance to finally face Roger Federer in an Open final and elevate their rivalry on American soil. Nadal senses it. When Monfils’ forehand smacked into the net to end the match after 2:45, Nadal fell to his knees and pumped his fist repeatedly.

Monfils, the tour’s most athletic player, zipped from one end of the baseline to the other to retrieve Nadal’s forehand lasers. But no one has the endurance of Nadal, who had Monfils gasping for air by the second set. Nadal had just 24 unforced errors, zero double faults and became steadier than a rock in the final three sets.

“Coming back and playing in quarterfinals is a big result for me,” Nadal said.

Murray, who lost to Federer in last year’s Open finals, had looked to be the sharpest player of the draw until yesterday. Murray seemed disinterested throughout the match and called it the biggest disappointment of his career.

“I didn’t find a way to get myself into the match. I played poorly. I’m obviously very disappointed.” said Murray, who appeared bothered by a left wrist injury. “I had a problem with it, but regardless I just struggled today.”

Monfils’ hour-long first-set victory was a doozy as he crushed a ton of forehands and outhustled the Spaniard.

Cilic, nearly ousted in the second round when he rallied from two-sets down against Jesse Levine, now faces del Potro, one of the Open’s darkhorses.

Justin Terranova contributed to his report.

marc.berman@nypost.com