WRAPUP 1-Tennis-Open-Federer awaits opponent for delayed final

By Larry Fine

NEW YORK, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Roger Federer stormed into his fifth successive U.S. Open final on Saturday but the rest of the day's play was washed out, tossing the last weekend of the Open into disarray.

Organisers were grilled about the scheduling as Federer, in sublime form with a 6-3 5-7 7-5 6-2 win over Novak Djokovic, was made to wait 24 hours before knowing his challenger after the second semi-final was suspended by rain.

Sixth-seeded Briton Andy Murray was in the driver's seat to book a date with the Swiss maestro, leading top seed Rafael Nadal 6-2 7-6 2-3 when the remnants of Tropical Storm Hanna hit Flushing Meadows.

The women's final, scheduled for Saturday night between twice champion Serena Williams and second seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia was postponed until Sunday night. The men's final has been slotted in for Monday.

Organisers came under fire after the elements conspired against them and Nadal and Murray were forced to abandon their match at 2:48 pm local time (1848 GMT).

"We were told we had a window through approximately five o'clock," tournament director Jim Curley told reporters.

"We made our decisions based on the in formation we had available from the weather service and our on-site meteorologist."

The Nadal-Murray tilt was shifted to adjacent Louis Armstrong court to run concurrently with Federer's match in hopes of completing both semi-finals. But it did not begin until one hour 40 minutes after Federer-Djokovic started.  Continued...