Nadal hands Simon a bittersweet exit

You might say top seed Rafael Nadal did Gilles Simon a favor by sending him home on a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 loss Sunday. As much as Simon would have liked to advance in the draw, he'll now get a chance to return home and see his first newborn son, born just three days before on September 2.

With all his thoughts and excitement about becoming a father for the first time, Simon admits it was difficult to focus on his game during the Open.

"It's hard to focus for me the last three days," Simon said. "But I think I was playing good. The two first sets were nice. I had some problems with my return today. I missed a lot of returns. And then the third set, I have to say that I was already in the plane."

Nadal eases his way into the fourth round having not yet dropped a set. Having struggled with his serve before coming to the US Open, he made a slight change to his grip and said he feels that everything in his game is coming together and getting better with every day on court.

"Today was a solid match, I think," he said. "The serve is still good, so that's a very important thing. From the baseline, I think my movements and my shots (are) starting to improve, to be better every day. So that's always important, and very good news to be improving during the tournament. I need to keep improving if I want to have chances."

Despite Simon's strong service game, an early break in the first set gave the Spaniard a 3-1 advantage. Nadal played his signature game, finding ways to consistently turn a defensive point into an offensive attack.

One point even saw the world No. 1 attempt a between-the-legs shot on a ball that Simon hit over his head, but the attempt landed in the net and the crowd applauded the effort. In the final game of the first set, Nadal fought his way out of a 30-0 hole to put away the first set.

Both players held their own through much of the second set until Nadal broke Simon at 4-3 as the Frenchman's errors began to pile up. Simon played a more passive game, allowing Nadal to dictate, take charge of the points and close out the second set.

By the third set, Simon appeared to be mentally checked out of the match, spraying shots long and hitting careless returns. Nadal jumped to a 4-0 lead before Simon was able to get on the board with a hold of his own. An ace on the final point sealed the match for the Spaniard.

Nadal's quarter of the draw has shaped up to be an all-Spanish showdown, with Nadal facing off against fellow countryman Feliciano Lopez in the fourth round, and Fernando Verdasco and David Ferrer rounding out the rest of the quarter.

"Already one Spanish player going to be in the semifinals. That is positive news for us," Nadal said. "Especially it's very positive because I think, (with) the ball and the court, it's probably the most difficult tournament for us, no? So that is very important news for Spanish tennis."