Andy Murray blew past Grigor Dimitrov 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 at the US Open on Monday to storm into his 24th consecutive straight quarter-final at a grand slam.
Advertisement
The Wimbledon champion had lost his last encounter with Dimitrov at the Miami Masters, but would dominate their latest meeting, breaking the Bulgarian’s serve nearly at will.
From the moment Murray broke for a 3-1 lead in the first set, on the back of a lung-busting 32-shot rally, the outcome of the Arthur Ashe Stadium clash was never in doubt.
Asked about his 141mph serve, Murray smiled: “I served one at 145 in San Jose but the next day they recalibrated the gun because it was completely wrong”.
The U.S. Open’s serve-speed readout board told the world that Andy Murray smacked a serve at 141 miles per hour.
“But after that, I don’t think so”.
And to make matters worse, chair umpire Marija Cicak’s stopped play again in the fourth set, just as Murray was holding a second break point, due to a loud gong-like sound in the arena.
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. “It’s never easy facing someone serving like Ivo, never easy to return those kinds of serves”, said Nishikori. “It was really tough to stay calm”.
“The rain delay helped me a lot, to regroup the tactics”.
Sixth seed Nishikori will now face the victor of the match between unseeded former champion Juan Martin del Potro and third-seeded Swiss Stan Wawrinka for a place in the Sunday’s final.
Wawrinka will line up against Juan Del Potro, who advanced as Austrian eighth seed Dominic Thiem was forced to retire 6-1, 3-2, with a knee injury.
The duo have faced each other eight times in the ATP tour and Grand Slam events, with Murray winning seven of those encounters. “I would’ve loved to go further but that wasn’t to be today”. Murray, playing the best tennis of his life according to many, was clinical as he taught the 22nd seed a thing or two about the game. He said that he has played against the Japanese in the past, however, the World No. 6 likes these conditions.
Murray led two sets to one – 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 – and held break points at 1-all in the fourth Wednesday.
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.
The British number one had been out of sorts in the previous round, when he had to battle past Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi, and it seemed fatigue might finally be catching up with him at the last grand slam of the season.
Advertisement
No man ranked as low as Del Potro has ever made the final of a major.
