By Pritha Sarkar
NEW YORK (Reuters) - It never rains at U.S. Open, it pours.
Just a day after Friday's entire program was washed out, leaving Rafael Nadal and Fernando Gonzalez trapped in the player's lounge as they waited to conclude their quarter-final, it was the turn of the women to stare out of the window.
Danish ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki and Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, both 19-year-olds, had been expected to start their semi-final around 1500 local time on Saturday but drizzle again returned to Flushing Meadows.
Luckily for Nadal, he timed the conclusion of his match perfectly as he made the most of the short dry spell, taking just 34 minutes to complete a 7-6 7-6 6-0 victory over Gonzalez.
They had barely stepped off court when the MC on Arthur Ashe Stadium welcomed on Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy for the men's doubles final against Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles.
Unfortunately, the quartet did not even manage to finish their warm-ups before the heavens again opened, sending the players running for cover.
With the two singles finals already pushed back by a day for the second year running -- with the women's scheduled for Sunday and the men's Monday -- organizers were again struggling to clear the backlog in the tournament's closing stages.
For the thousands of fans who were getting drenched on their day out at the National Tennis Center, it was turning out to be an extremely frustrating day.
"We spent six hours sitting in the rain yesterday and saw no tennis and today we saw just one set," said Val Antonio from Minneapolis.
"The air was dry from 9am to 1pm, so why did they not start earlier as they would have got four hours of tennis in."
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While fans like Antonio think it is time for a roof to be built over the Arthur Ashe Stadium, organizers said the $100 million cost of the venture made it impractical.
Antonio disagreed: "It seems the fans are not the U.S. Open's first priority. They love the sponsors, they love the players but they don't care about the fans.
"$100 million dollars sounds like a lot of money but not when you take into account what they get from advertisers. I'm sure they would make it back."
Her friend Liz Decker, who has brought her mother to celebrate her 75th birthday, added: "Next year I won't spend thousands and thousands of dollars buying tickets for the final weekend as they don't accommodate my needs.
"We have to go back tomorrow and will miss the final and we won't even get our money back."
With no signs of the showers letting up, at 1655 pm (2055 GMT) organizers were forced to postpone the men's doubles final to Sunday. By 1900, six hours of play had been lost on Day 13.
Three-times former champion Ivan Lendl and 1999 finalist Todd Martin came out to lift the spirits of the few hundred spectators who opted to stay put on the Ashe arena, hitting balls high into the stands.
Such a spectacle at least kept Canadian fan Carole Ronsse, who traveled over from Montreal, entertained.
"I'm not frustrated as I'm from outside the country and we'll wait three, four, five hours to see some tennis. If you're frustrated, you'll never get your goal," said Ronsse.
"Besides it's quiet here and it's great. It's like we're the owner of the stadium."
One other person also refused to get too downhearted.
"I have to admit I'm very pleased that (Nadal-Gonzalez) match is finished," U.S. Open tournament director Jim Curley said to hoots of laughter, referring to the match that spanned three days.
(Editing by Steve Ginsburg)