“He played some good stuff at the Olympics and won the bronze”, said Murray who reached the quarter-final with a brutal dismissal of Grigor Dimitrov where he lost just five games.
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Dimitrov hardly put up a fight as Murray cruised to a 6-1 6-2 6-2 victory in NY.
Kei Nishikori , the runner-up two years ago, awaits in the quarter-finals after his David and Goliath clash.
“I played a really good match against Kei in Rio and I’ll need to do that again if I want to beat him because he’s one of the best players in the world, plays extremely well on hard court”.
Wedneday’s other quarter-final sees 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro, ranked at 142 but on the comeback trail after three wrist surgeries, tackle third seed Stan Wawrinka, a former Australian and French Open victor.
The other women’s quarterfinal pits two women who’ve never been this far before at a Grand Slam tournament: 10th-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic and 92nd-ranked Ana Konjuh of Croatia.
Murray now faces Nishikori, who was impressive against Karlovic in their fourth-round bout, coming out on top 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-4).
The third seed needed just under three hours to see off his Ukrainian opponent 6-4 6-1 6-7 (5-7) 6-3. I played a really good match against him a few weeks ago.
Their third encounter in 2013 was in the semifinals of Brisbane with Murray leading by a set, Nishikori retired in the second set.
The victor will face Karolina Pliskova or Ana Konjuh, who will face each other on Wednesday, September 7.
Two-time major champion Stan Wawrinka blew a lead, smashed a racket and eventually pulled out a four-set victory to reach his fourth straight U.S. Open quarterfinal.
Before the triumphs of Nishikori and Murray, Wawrinka has also reached the quarterfinals for the fifth time, his fourth time in a row, by beating Illya Marchenko from Ukraine 6-4, 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-3. She could face No. 1 Serena Williams next.
Del Potro had won the first set 6-3 and was up a break in the second. “I couldn’t bend my knee too much in the last three days so I was handicapped a little bit”, said Thiem playing his 70th match of the year.
Wawrinka noted it will be his first meeting against del Potro on hard courts.
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At No. 142, del Potro is the lowest-ranked U.S. Open quarterfinalist since Jimmy Connors in 1991. Wawrinka has to try to make Del Potro generate his own pace off the backhand and look to come towards the net to take advantage. The combination of a win over Wawrinka in Wimbledon and an almighty silver-medal-winning effort at the Olympics, has given him the self-belief that he yearned for.
