She finished with 18 aces.
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Williams is bidding for her seventh title at Flushing Meadows and 23rd overall at a major tournament – both would be records for the Open era, which dates to 1968.
A year ago in the semifinals, Williams’ attempt to finish off a calendar-year Grand Slam ended with a stunning loss to unseeded Roberta Vinci of Italy.
Andy Murray admits recovering from his US Open heartache will be hard before next week’s Davis Cup semi-final against Argentina. I was missing too much.
The American group is led by fourth-seeded Amanda Anisimova, a 15-year-old who was a French Open junior finalist. Whenever Murray finally stopped seething enough to play tennis, he cooled to see a match that had changed beyond measure.
The Brit was hoping to make it back-to-back Grand Slam titles at Flushing Meadows after his success at Wimbledon earlier in the year, and was tipped to go all the way in NY after an excellent recent run of form.
A shade over four hours earlier Nishikori nearly got off to a dream start, taking a 0-40 lead in the opening game before Murray came roaring back to hold serve.
And then he blew his top when the stadium sound system accidentally interrupted a break point in the second set.
The world number two – a victor in NY four years ago – was looking to continue his recent winning form, at Flushing Meadows, following victories at Wimbledon and the Olympic Games in Rio.
A first-round U.S. Open women’s singles match will be looked into by tennis’ anti-corruption organization because of possible irregular betting patterns.
Earlier, Murray acknowledged a brief dip in play after the argument over the let but preferred to focus on other reasons for his exit. When they returned, Nishikori won the point and they were on level terms – with the sun shining outside.What is officially an open-air tournament now presented an important quarter-final as an indoor match and in the next 20 minutes everything changed.
“Exactly the same thing”, Murray exclaimed. At 5-all, 30-all, Murray double-faulted to set up break point, and Nishikori converted by reaching for a stretch volley victor.
The USTA says the malfunctioning unit will be replaced between Wednesday’s day and night sessions. The roof was closed in anticipation of the drizzle building into something, but it was bright sunshine soon although the roof remained shut.
Andy Murray has been beaten in his US Open quarter-final, losing to sixth seed Kei Nishikori in a pulsating five-set contest. He won that game and the next 4 as well, serving great in the rest of the set and breaking Murray in games 4 and 6, looking superior on the court in those moments. He had a break point when they had to replay the point. Chair umpire Marija Cicak immediately halted play.
He also spoke to a tournament supervisor about it, pleading his case and saying, “That’s not fair”. Andy found a lifeline when he broke back in game 4, leveling the score at 2-2, only to waste 2 game points and got broken again in game 5, needing to chase the result all over again.
The Swiss is into his third semifinal at the US Open in the last four years. She won 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in just over two hours. She’ll face No. 1 Serena Williams or fifth-seeded Simona Halep on Thursday. Now she’s blown past that milestone, riding the momentum of a breakthrough title at Cincinnati, where she beat second-ranked Angelique Kerber in the final. That led to a five-set win for the Japanese ace, who put in spirited play despite having started off at a disadvantage. It also had happened during Monday night’s match between Ana Konjuh and Agnieszka Radwanska.
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However, it will be Nishikori who goes through to tomorrow’s semi-finals, in which he will face Juan Martin del Potro or Stan Wawrinka. Murray has dropped only one set in the tournament, and del Potro has lost none.
