NEW YORK -- Labor Day at the U.S. Open was hardly labor-intensive for most of the tennis players; rain was the main concern.

	Rain caused matches to be postponed until Tuesday.

For Jennifer Capriati, however, it was a long, anxiety-ridden day. Her round of 16 match with Russian Elena Dementieva took only 72 minutes in elapsed time, but it required nine hours and 20 minutes to complete. Capriati prevailed 6-2, 7-5 Monday night, but not without a struggle -- not to mention three different skirt and blouse combinations.

Even friend Matthew Perry, sitting next to Capriati's father, Stefano, at the bitter end on Monday evening, looked fatigued. The No. 6 seed had her Monday match, scheduled for 11 a.m., delayed then interrupted twice by rain. She caught a nap on a couch in the players' lounge while she waited, but played like her racket was on fire in her brief, frenetic appearances on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court.

"The night goes on and you just want to get it finished," Capriati explained later. "It was coming again, and I was like, 'No, go away.' I really wanted to get this done. I wanted to have the day off tomorrow.

"I should motivate myself like this more often."

Of the 73 scheduled matches at the National Tennis Center, Capriati's was the first completed -- and, as it turned out, one of only two finished. And what of her fellow competitors?

"I hope they play all night and have to come back tomorrow," Capriati said, not really kidding.

Well, she got most of her wish.

After Capriati concluded her match, the players in the other three matches all took to the courts -- and then the rain returned yet again.

A final shot came at 10:30 p.m. In Arthur Ashe Stadium, Justine Henin-Hardenne went after the 17-year-old Russian Dinara Safina with unusual resolve -- which is saying something. After weathering five deuces on her opening service game, Henin-Hardenne won the first 11 games, then idled home after a brief lapse, 6-0, 6-3, for her first appearance in the quarterfinals here.

On Louis Armstrong Court, Ai Sugiyama and Francesca Schiavone were tied at 6-all in the first set with Schiavone preparing to serve to open the tiebreaker when rain killed hopes of any further play. On the Grandstand, Anastasia Myskina led Mary Pierce 4-2.

The men were released, two by two, from their match responsibilities as the day progressed. Was it a coincidence that one day after Andre Agassi complained about the USTA's decision to wash out his Saturday match with Yevgeny Kafelnikov and finish it on Sunday -- while allowing the other matches to be finished -- the USTA threw the 33-year-old No. 1 seed a lovely bouquet? Agassi, who would have been playing Taylor Dent, 11 years his junior, with 16 hours less rest, was sent home first, along with Dent. Later, No. 5 Guillermo Coria (nursing a hamstring pull) and Jonas Bjorkman got the boot, followed by No. 6 seed Lleyton Hewitt and No. 11 Paradorn Srichaphan and No. 3 Juan Carlos Ferrero and Todd Martin, who were forced to stick around until that final decision came down at 9:40 p.m.

Martin, who has established a tradition of late-night success here on Arthur Ashe, didn't seem to mind.

"It's totally different (than Capriati's situation)," he said. "I came out here much later than I would have ordinarily, with the bad weather."

Martin passed the time playing seriously competitive backgammon with Tom Gullikson.

"I have to feed my family," Martin explained.

Capriati played with a similar sense of urgency when she came out and blasted Dementieva off the court at the beginning of their late-starting match. Capriati was leading 4-love and 40-30 in 13 minutes when rain intervened for the first time. She rallied nicely after the break to take the first set, but rain returned before she gained much momentum in the second. Then, after the second break, Capriati ran out to a 4-2, 30-15 lead -- only to have the powerful Russian level, break her twice and take an unlikely 5-4 lead.

"Maybe I felt a little tired and was just not in my concentration mode," Capriati said. "Then I realized that, you know, 'What am I doing here? Let's get it together, try to finish the match.' "

She broke Dementieva with some strong groundstrokes, then played her best game at 5-all. Her first serve was an 108-mile-an-hour ace -- her first (and last) of the night -- and she twice came to net to finish off rallies with a crisp forehand volley. As the rain began to come down again, Capriati finished it with a two-hand swinging backhand and virtually ran off the court.

Capriati is through to the quarterfinals here at the tournament she stunned in 1991 with a ride into the semifinals as a 15-year-old. Capriati, now 27, has had a favorable draw and would play the winner of Sugiyama-Schiavone to land in another semifinal match, presumably, with Henin-Hardenne.

With the Williams sisters out with injuries, this might be Capriati's one last chance to add to her late-blooming total of three Grand Slams.

Is she playing as well as she was in 2001 and 2002 when she won the Australian Open?

"Just about," she said honestly, but unconvincingly. "I was the underdog then, and now, I'm kind of the underdog again. I feel like there's less pressure on me." With two more days of rain in the forecast, no one will feel more pressure than the USTA.

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.