Spanish 12th seed Pablo Carreno Busta, who has not dropped a set at the US Open, advanced to his first Grand Slam semifinal on Tuesday by defeating Argentine 29th seed Diego Schartzman 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
Carreno Busta, the first player to face four qualifiers in any Grand Slam, booked a Friday semifinal against the winner of a night match between South African 28th seed Kevin Anderson and 17th-seeded American Sam Querrey, whose first Slam semifinal in was July at Wimbledon.
"Incredible," Carreno Busta said. "It's something that I always dreamed about but something I never thought was going to arrive here. It's a great feeling."
While legends Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are each one win from meeting for the first time at the US Open in a potentially epic semifinal on the other half of the draw, this side is guaranteed to produce a first-time Slam finalist. "It would be fantastic to play him in the final," Carreno Busta said of facing countryman Nadal in the final. "But we have to play step by step."
Carreno Busta broke at love to open the match and again to lead 5-2 on the way to taking the first set in 38 minutes.
After an early exchange of second-set breaks, Carreno Busta broke to 5-4 and held to claim the set, then broke at love on a double fault to open the third set.
The Spaniard denied Schwartzman on a break point in the fourth game, and on 6-of-8 in the match, then broke again in the seventh game before holding for victory in just under two hours.
Schartzman, at 5ft 7in (1.70m), was the shortest Slam quarterfinalist since same-height Peruvian Jaime Yzaga at the 1994 US Open.
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