Wawrinka, a former Australian and French Open champion, reached a fourth successive quarter-final in NY with a hard-fought 6-4, 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 win over Illya Marchenko, the world number 63 from Ukraine.
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“I didn’t expect to be in quarters in my second Grand Slam after my comeback”, del Potro said.
“My best tennis is in there”. A lot of people worry about that or panic and say, “This is awful”. He was moving me well, playing the right shots, just executing a lot of balls the right way. At 6-foot-11, he set a tournament record with 61 aces in a five-set win in the first round.
“I played extremely well”.
Murray’s defence was extraordinary, as he rescued countless lost causes by landing towering lobs on Dimitrov’s baseline. He has picked up his level noticeably in recent weeks and played some excellent tennis to beat the talented Portuguese Joao Sousa in four sets two days ago when Murray was having problems with the 34-year-old Italian Paolo Lorenzi.
Murray will now face Kei Nishikori in the last eight.
Dimitrov dumped a routine overhead volley into the net to offer an early 3-1 lead to Murray, who then reeled off the next six games in a row.
When Murray took the second set, the statistics emphasised the improbability of a Dimitrov fightback.
Number two seed Murray, understandably, was delighted with his performance.
Marchenko had dropped the first set of his third-round match against 14th-seeded Nick Kyrgios but won the next two as the Australian struggled with a hip injury that eventually forced him to retire. But the Bulgarian remarked that he ought of have played better. “For sure he has a lot of confidence right now, a lot of matches behind his back”.
“I served one at 145 in San Jose and the next day they recalibrated the gun because it was completely wrong”, he said.
The U.S. Open’s serve-speed readout board told the world that Andy Murray smacked a serve at 141 miles per hour. “I served very well when I was behind in the game”.
Elsewhere, in the men’s doubles, Great Britain’s Jamie Murray and Brazil’s Bruno Soares beat Brian Baker and Marcus Daniell 6-3, 7-6 to reach the last eight. From 1-1 in that first set, Dimitrov won only two of the next 17 games and the only time Murray was held up was just before the very last game of the match when it started to rain and a decision had to be made over whether to close the roof.
“Tactically I played a good match”.
Should del Potro make the semifinals he would be the lowest-ranked man to do so at a Grand Slam since 237th-ranked Vladimir Voltchkov at Wimbledon in 2000. I’m playing matches every day.
Eighteen-year-old Ana Konjuh stunned fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4, 6-4 to book her spot in the quarter-finals.
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The 2012 Open champion, who is looking to win his second straight major – Murray claimed his second Wimbledon crown in July – will meet No. 6 Kei Nishikori in the next round, a match that should be far more challenging for Murray.
