Kei Nishikori advanced to his second U.S. Open semifinal after beating Andy Murray in five sets, 1-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5, on Wednesday evening in Flushing Meadows, New York.
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Kei Nishikori battled past world No. 2 Andy Murray 1-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 in a almost four-hour duel Wednesday to advance to the semifinals at the year’s last Grand Slam event.
The Swiss broke back in the seventh game and although Del Potro, whose career was nearly derailed by a series of wrist injuries, saved two set points in the tiebreaker, a rare forehand error gave up the set.
‘Under the roof he was able to dictate more of the points and playing closer to the baseline than me’. Since his breakout run to the 2014 US Open final in a year that seemed to position him as the one clutch player beneath the big four who could possibly do some damage against them, it’s hard to overstate the disappointment he elicited as he morphed into the same shade of the rest of the field beneath. “That helped me a lot to regroup the tactics”, he said. But I’ve also won some over the last few months I should have lost.
Andy Murray lost six service games in his first four matches at the US Open.
Murray hit 46 unforced errors, not disastrous but, allied to a serve that never quite hit the heights of previous matches here, giving Nishikori too much latitude to build his game.
The Japanese star, however, stayed true to his aggressive strategy to break Murray’s serve in the 11th game with a volley victor and then clinch the match by forcing Murray into one final backhand error.
Murray admitted he briefly lost his composure – which opened the door for 2014 runner-up Nishikori, who has now beaten top 10 players five times at the US Open.
Murray has been critical of the noise level when the roof has been closed during matches involving him in this year’s Open (the first time the roof has been available for use), and he said earlier in the tournament that “you can’t hear anything really” with the dome overhead. Nishikori pounced to break and then served out the win on his second serve point.
That same type of noise came from the speakers again at 4-1 in the fourth set.
The system was due to be fixed before the night session yesterday when Serena Williams faced Simona Halep and Juan Martin del Potro tackled Stan Wawrinka. At 5-all, 30-all, Murray double-faulted to set up break point, and Nishikori converted by reaching for a stretch volley victor.
With the incident still appearing to bother him, Murray dropped serve at the start of the fifth set – it was the seventh game out of eight that Nishikori had won. “This is one of my favorite Grand Slams”. Murray missed that opportunity as well but capitalized on two more unforced errors as Murray took a 5-1 lead.
A convincing hold of serve was soon followed by even more joy for the sixth seed as he broke Murray’s serve at the second time of asking in the game to all but seal the set.
“If someone had offered me the summer that I have had before Wimbledon, I probably would have signed for that”, said Murray.
Broken early in the fifth set to 0-2, Murray looked down and out. Once play resumed, Nishikori held serve and won the game.
“We were told at the beginning of the event and also today that if the forecast’s good they will open the roof during the match”.
But the elements, an accident, the Scot’s own temperament and, most of all, the fearless, tireless Nishikori conspired to derail him in a match too far for the British No 1. “I know he is staying back, (so) it worked really well today”.
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In a match filled with fantastic shotmaking and enthralling exchanges, neither player budged until Williams righted herself in the third set to emerge with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Halep on Wednesday night to get back to the semifinals at Flushing Meadows.
