Sixth seed Nishikori won 1-6 6-4 4-6 6-1 7-5 to hand Murray his earliest Grand Slam defeat of the season.
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Murray was furious, claiming that Cicak had said earlier that they would play through any noise distractions, and after losing the game the Scot made his point to one of the supervisors.
Nonetheless, Murray had regained the momentum and held a second break point at 1-1 in the fourth when the loud sound went off mid-point. Although, Murray lost this match, but Nishikori accepted that he did not start well.
Wawrinka, who had to save a match point in his third round clash with Dan Evans, will be playing in a third US Open semi-final in four years.
Had he not been quite so mentally and physically spent, Murray might well be preparing for the semi-finals at the US Open.
His defeat means NY will host the first Grand Slam final this year without Murray on one side of the net and the first since 2004 without Murray, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals. “In the end I (played) great tennis, so I’m very happy”.
Japan’s Kei Nishikori advanced to the U.S. Open semifinals with a 1-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 upset victory Wednesday afternoon over British No. 2 seed Andy Murray.
He did admit that “there’s just a few things I could do differently next time”, and I would imagine that would be not to lose his cool and/or let the distractions get the best of him.
She lost just one point on her serve in the first set Wednesday and never faced a break point.
“I’m not disappointed in a way”, Murray, who had 46 unforced errors to Nishikori’s 60, told reporters.
Del Potro, the world number 142 and bidding to become the lowest ranked man to reach a Grand Slam semi-final in 16 years, was out to a 4-1 lead in the first set against Wawrinka.
A few drops of rain had been falling in the second set and at 3-3 play was stopped for 20 minutes while the roof was closed.
‘Obviously I’ll look forward to the match.
“I lost my serve a couple of times from positions when I was up in the game and that was the difference”.
Since winning at Flushing Meadows in 2012, Murray has failed to reach the semi-finals in three subsequent attempts and he must now find a way of regaining his focus ahead of next week’s Davis Cup semi-final against Argentina.
The quarter-final featured 17 breaks of serve and five in the last set where Nishikori had led 4-2 at one stage.
It took the best part of two hours for Williams to break free of the tenacious Halep with a succession of heavy returns giving her a 3-1 lead in the final set.
As he raged, seven games on the bounce slipped past him and Nishikori was back in the match. I could have won the match for sure.
“I have been losing to Andy a lot”, Nishikori said.
At 4-3, Nishikori dropped serve from 40-0, making a rare volley error on a comfortable volley at 40-30.
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The USTA said there was a sound processor that malfunctioned in the fourth set of the Murray-Nishikori match, but that it could not be taken off-line without interrupting play. Williams, seeking a record seventh US Open title and 23rd Grand Slam crown, fired 18 aces en route to the triumph, which set up a meeting with first-time Grand Slam semifinalist Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic for a place in Saturday’s championship match.
