Andy Murray saw off 22nd seed Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets as he reached the last eight at Flushing Meadows. There were many ups and downs. “It’s definitely up there, I played well today, made very few unforced errors and made it tough for Grigor”, Murray said, as quoted by BBC.
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He is narrowly ahead of Edmund in the rankings and matched his Wimbledon showing by reaching the third round in NY, where he held match point before losing in five sets to world number three Stan Wawrinka.
Next up for Murray is Japan’s Kei Nishikori, a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-4) victor over Ivo Karlovic.
Murray will now face 2014 finalist Kei Nishikori who dominated Ivo Karlovic 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (3) to advance to his second US Open quarterfinal. “I wish Dominic a quick recovery as he has a great future”, said 27-year-old Del Potro, the lowest-ranked man in the last-eight since Jimmy Connors, at 174, went all the way to semi-finals in 1991. Murray bullied him into double faults by moving well inside the baseline to pounce as the Bulgarian hit second serves. Konjuh accidentally stepped on a ball and injured her right ankle in the next-to-last game of the 2-6, 6-4, 9-7 loss. “I’m not expecting to do it again”.
Things should get tougher for Murray, with No. 6 seed Kei Nishikori looming in the quarterfinals. “It’s going to be a great challenge for me to play him here on the hard court for the first time”.
The U.S. Open’s serve-speed readout board told the world that Andy Murray smacked a serve at 141 miles per hour. That came in Miami in March before Murray found his current form in winning his second Wimbledon title and second Olympic gold medal.
“I have played well against him in the past but he likes these conditions”, said Murray.
The US Open runner-up two years ago, Nishikori will go down as the victor of the last final main draw singles match at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Murray on the other hand, won at the Olympics and was also knocked out by Marin Cilic at the tournament in Cincinnati, going down in the final. The third and fourth sets were comfortable.
Murray is set for a more testing encounter against Nishikori, who is one of the fittest players on tour, but he holds an excellent record against the world number seven.
While Thiem departs for some much-needed recovery, Del Potro must turn his attention to Wawrinka, who overcame Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko 6-4 6-1 6-7 (5/7) 6-3.
The Scotsman broke Dimitrov twice to open the second and take a 3-0 lead, then broke the Bulgarian again to open the third, never giving him a chance to get back into the match.
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Tomorrow, Novak Djokovic returns against Jo-Wilfred Tsonga.
