Rafael Nadal's assault on the US Open continued after he cruised to a comfortable 7-5 6-3 6-4 victory over compatriot Fernando Verdasco in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

Nadal will now meet Russian Mikhail Youzhny in his third straight US Open semi-final, with the Russian expected to be no obstacle to world No.1 Nadal advancing to his first final at Flushing Meadows.

Nadal lost his serve for the first time in the tournament in the first set, but it was the only slip up for the 24-year-old, who went on to dispatch his countryman in straight sets.

Nadal continued to deploy his much improved serve to win 84 percent of first service points, but the Spaniard admitted to struggling with the strong winds that have threatened to blight the tournament.

"It was very difficult to play, one of the most difficult days and Fernando had a really tough match the other day," said Nadal.

"The serve was important but it was very difficult when you throw the ball up to control it."

Nadal produced a disciplined performance en route to victory, minimising his own errors and electing to come up to the net to reduce the threat posed by Verdasco's powerful forehand.

The No.1 seed finished the match with only 16 unforced errors and broke Verdasco's serve four times throughout a typically energetic display.

"The movements are very important and I tried all the time to be very concentrated and wait for the mistakes of the opponent," Nadal said.

"It's very important for me to make the semi-finals again. It's very nice to be in the semi-finals three times in a row at one of the most important tournaments of the world, probably for me right now the most important."

Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic will await the winner of Nadal and Youzhny in the US Open final.