He and Soderling originally were scheduled to play Saturday, and they began hitting at 4 p.m. that day. But drizzles forced them off before the match actually began, and then came the traditional day off on the middle Sunday.

“I didn’t understand why we didn’t play on Sunday,” Nadal said. “The weather was OK, so much better than yesterday, Monday and today, too.”

It took him about 20 minutes to close it out Wednesday, and he celebrated by dropping to his knees, as though the championship were his. Instead, Nadal or No. 4 Novak Djokovic — who completed a three-day, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (6), 6-2, 7-6 (5) victory over Nicolas Kiefer — faces the prospect of playing on seven consecutive days if either makes it to Sunday’s final.

Then again, who knows whether the men’s final will be played Sunday? It’s rained on eight of nine days so far, including Wednesday.

“I’ve got nothing to do next week,” two-time finalist Andy Roddick said with a smile, “so I’m here as long as I keep going.”

He beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 (6) in a fourth-round match suspended Tuesday and now faces No. 12 Richard Gasquet. Roddick trailed Mathieu 5-0 and 6-3 in the third-set tiebreaker before taking the final five points. The No. 3-seeded American has won 18 consecutive tiebreakers.

All the remaining men are scheduled to play Thursday, including four-time reigning champion Roger Federer — who’s been off since Friday. He avoided all of the rain hassles because his fourth-round opponent withdrew with an injury.

“We’ve been stuck in a locker room for nine hours a day, and he’s been chilling out taking the double-decker bus tour, maybe,” Roddick said. “Given the choice, I’ll take a living room over a locker room.”

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