NEW YORK (AFP) - Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will meet in the US Open final on Monday after the world's top two players reached the championship match in contrasting fashions on Saturday.

World number two Nadal defeated French eighth seed Richard Gasquet for the 11th time in 11 meetings thanks to a 6-4, 7-6 (7/1), 6-2 win.

Djokovic, the world number one, beat Swiss ninth seed Stanislas Wawrinka, 2-6, 7-6 (7/4), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Nadal, the 2010 champion, dropped serve for the first time in his semi-final, ending a run of 73 perfect service games for the tournament and a run of 88 in total stretching back to the Cincinnati Masters semi-finals.

He will be playing in his third US Open final while Djokovic, who was the 2011 champion, is in his fourth successive final in New York and fifth in total.