Nishikori, the No. 6 seed, was the aggressor for most of the contest, striking 48 winners to Murray’s 29 and also winning nearly twice as many net points (going 27-of-39 on his net approaches compared to 14-of-25 for the Scotsman).
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Dealing with the rowdy US Open crowd is one thing, but Andy Murray also had a unusual gong noise to contend with in his defeat to Kei Nishikori.
“I have played well against him in the past but he likes these conditions”, said Murray, who ruthlessly despatched Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the last 16 on Monday night. “I got a lot of free points with my serve tonight”, Murray said.
“It was so exciting on the court but I tried to stay calm”. “He started very well in the beginning”.
“You want to try and complete as many matches outdoors as possible”. Currently, she has won two titles and 17 out of 118 matches since Wimbledon.
Whatever coach Michael Chang told his player during the stoppage, it worked, as a more aggressive Nishikori came out and broke to take the second set.
It wasn’t a awful performance by the three-time Grand Slam champion, but he fell into some of the same bad habits that have hampered his play in the past.
The last spots in the U.S. Open semifinals will be decided Wednesday, with Serena Williams, Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro seeking to keep their dominant runs going.
Murray complained about the ruling right away, gave away the next three points to lose the game, then brought it up again with Cicak at the ensuing changeover, saying something similar had happened earlier without a re-do of the point. He reached the finals at the year’s first three Grand Slam tournaments, losing at the Australian Open and French Open to Novak Djokovic.
The 29-year-old has dominated the head-to-head record against Nishikori beating him seven times in eight meetings so far.
“It was definitely up there”, said Murray. I have been returning well, so that also helped today.
All of Murray’s preparation for the U.S. Open-specifically, Djokovic-make his loss to Nishikori harder to swallow.
In a match littered with service breaks – 17 in all – Nishikori prevailed for only his second win in eight matches against the world No 2.
After collecting the first set, the Scot would surge 3-0 up in the second and briefly exchanged breaks with Dimitrov before serving out for a two-nil lead in the match.
The game finally looked up when Nishikori broke again, feeding off another Murray double fault but, leading 4-3, the Japanese allowed his nerves to take hold.
The only time Nishikori has defeated Murray was back in 2014 at the ATP World Tour Finals.
The British No 1 had been out of sorts in the previous round, when he had to battle past Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi, and it seemed fatigue might be catching up with him at the last grand slam of the season.
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Serena Williams reacts after a point against Yaroslava Shvedova, of Kazakhstan, during the fourth round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Monday, Sept. 5, 2016, in NY.
