But then, after Murray saved those three break points, before going on to win the first set 6-1, it looked like being just another comfortable outing for the No.2 seed.
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“They stopped the point and I was just curious why that was and that was it”, Murray said.
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.
Djokovic targets a 10th successive semi-final appearance on Tuesday when he faces longtime rival Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, one of three Frenchmen in the last-eight.
Australian and French Open victor Wawrinka’s last game was delayed while the crowd saluted the popular del Potro, who missed the past two US Opens because of three wrist operations.
Wawrinka hasn’t beaten Del Potro for eight years while the 27-year-old Argentine knocked him out of Wimbledon in the second round this year. Twice, in fact. She dropped a set for the first time in the tournament, too, pushed to the brink by Simona Halep in the quarterfinals.
“That was an important chat to have because I definitely was a little bit flat a couple of days ago and I definitely couldn’t afford to let that happen against Dimitrov”.
Dimitrov broke only once in the match in the fourth game of the second set but it was a brief respite as Murray quickly reclaimed it before taking 10 of the next 12 games to seal the rout.
“What else? I mean, how would you know?”
He also spoke to a tournament supervisor about it, pleading his case and saying, “That’s not fair”. So what I gather from that is I really could have played better in that second set and maybe had an opportunity to win in straights. Konjuh, also a big server, had more aces in the match, in fact (4-3).
The US Tennis Association said a faulty “digital audio sound processor” would be replaced before the night session. Down 4-2 in the fifth, Murray reeled off three winning games, stirring the boisterous Ashe crowd into a noisy tumult.
At 30-30 Murray double-faulted and on the next point Nishikori won a superb rally with a volley which ended with Murray slamming his racket into the net. I fought as hard as I could with what I had, ‘ Murray said. “It was really tough to stay calm”.
“Tonight was the first time I have gone above 140”, the 29-year-old said.
She’s now blown past that milestone, routing 18-year-old Ana Konjuh 6-2, 6-2 in just 57 minutes Wednesday to reach the semifinals. It happened with Murray already up two sets to one and holding a second break point at 1-all in the fourth. That didn’t’ last long, though, as the 6th seed finally showed his abilities on return, breaking Murray at love in game 6 to level the score at 3-3, before the pause in game 7 caused by the rain that forced the roof to get closed.
“That helped me a lot to regroup the tactics”, Nishikori said. She kept her nerve, giving herself a match point with a blistering backhand down the line, and claimed the win with a serve that Radwanska could only smack into the net.
Maybe that made a difference. “That for sure helped my game today”, – Nishikori was content with his return game against ace king Karlovic.
The third set began in the same vein, a break to each, all square until 3-3, then another break each side as Nishikori began to find some outstanding shots to counter some big serving from Murray. It did seem that way from the sidelines, given that the British No1 went on to lose the next seven games.
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The Swiss broke back in the seventh game and although Del Potro, whose career was nearly derailed by a series of wrist injuries, saved two set points in the tiebreaker, a rare forehand error gave up the set.
