Andy Murray, the 2012 champion, who has reached the last 16 or better for the 23rd straight Slam, will open the night session against resurgent Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
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Murray has reached the final of every Grand Slam tournament this year and will next face Nishikori, a man he has beaten in seven of their eight matches.
During the changeover right before the last game, it suddenly began to rain, and play was delayed only slightly before the shower passed. When he faced Steve Johnson in their second-round match on Arthur Ashe Stadium, the American number two walked out onto his home court to soul-destroying, barely-audible applause.
“I don’t know if I am playing better than I was in 2009 but I will try to keep winning”.
“I don’t remember”, he said. More importantly, Nishikori won on 70 percent of his second serves to just 47 percent for Karlovic.
“I served one at 145 in San Jose, but the next day”, Murray said with a smile, “they recalibrated the gun because it was completely wrong”. He will face No. 3-seeded Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland.
Next up for Murray is Japan’s Kei Nishikori who was a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (4) victor over Ivo Karlovic. It will be torn down after the tournament, with a new venue to be built to replace it. Serving for the match in the third set, the third-seeded Wawrinka was broken and then lost a tiebreaker.
He was a break to the good at 2-1 in the fourth before Wawrinka, seemingly reinvigorated by a violent racquet smash courtside, recovered to win five of the next six games. However, he proceeded to win the next four games to regain control on the way to a victory.
In order to stay ahead of his wrist-related weaknesses, Del Potro has manage to upgrade the potency of what was already one of the biggest forehands in history, and actually land it in.
Stanislas Wawrinka has set up a mouth-watering clash in the quarter-final of the 2016 US Open against Juan Martin del Potro.
Del Potro booked his spot in the final eight when Dominic Thiem retired in the second set of their match.
Thiem said his knee started hurting three days earlier, possible after he changed the way he walked because of foot blisters.
Having saved a match point in an epic triumph over Dan Evans in the last round, Wawrinka, a semi-finalist in 2013 and 2015, cruised through the first two sets against Marchenko.
Ultimately, injury took down Thiem, who pulled up short clutching at his knee after trying to run down a del Potro shot midway through the second set.
“I couldn’t bend my knee too much in the last three days so I was handicapped a little bit”, said Thiem.
Del Potro carried his momentum into the second set, claiming an early break in the third game.
Nishikori, who became the first Asian to reach a grand slam men’s final two years ago in Flushing Meadows, has had a strong season, including a run to the quarters at the Australian Open before falling to eventual victor Novak Djokovic.
And the long season had started to wear on his body, including after 12 sets in the opening four rounds at Flushing Meadows. And at the Rio Olympics, he won the silver medal in singles, losing to Andy Murray in the finals after beating Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal to get there.
Thiem attempted to continue but after a brief discussion with trainers called it a day, shaking Del Potro’s hand and exiting the court.
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In fact, last year he played only four matches and the year before just 10.
