He went from a lead of two sets to one, plus a break point at 1-all, to ceding the fourth set and trailing 2-0 in the fifth.
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A double fault from Murray handed Nishikori a break point that was duly converted to the fury of the Wimbledon champion, and the 26-year-old held serve to wrap up a memorable win.
Having saved a match point in an epic triumph over Dan Evans in the last round, Wawrinka, a semifinalist in 2013 and 2015, cruised through the first two sets against Illya Marchenko.
The U.S. Tennis Association confirmed that the noise was due to a malfunctioning digital audio sound processor which will be replaced between Wednesday’s day and night sessions.
“Her serve”, the 92nd-ranked Konjuh summed up, “is just too good”. “That was the difference”.
“It was obviously different serving under the roof”, he said.
“After the rain delay I think I was more focused and started playing better tennis, so I was getting more confidence”.
“On Sunday night I tried to get in bed early and I slept for 12 hours straight”.
“That would be the fastest serve I’ve hit, the other best serve was here at the US Open around 138 but I have never hit over 140”. The Scot served consistently and broke Dimitrov seven times, punishing the Bulgarian’s erratic serves. “I just didn’t hold serve enough”.
But the English beat would get no easier the rest of the way Wednesday afternoon on Arthur Ashe Stadium court, after Nishikori rebounded and gutted out a thrilling five-set victory – 1-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 – to advance to the U.S. Open semifinals for the second time in his career.
Nishikori, runner-up here in 2014, goes through to his second grand slam semi-final, where he will face either Juan Martin del Potro or Stan Wawrinka.
The first two quarter-finals take place on Tuesday when defending champion Novak Djokovic faces France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Lucas Pouille, the conqueror of Rafael Nadal, tackles French compatriot Gael Monfils.
Murray had won seven of his previous eight meetings with Nishikori, including their most recent encounter in the Olympic semi-finals, but the Japanese is one of the game’s great shot-makers who has the ability to mix up big ground strokes with beautifully timed drop shots.
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. “I had very few unforced errors and made it tough for Grigor”, Murray said.
Murray refused to blame his defeat on the incident.
“It was definitely my mistakes that lost the first set”.
The ebb and flow nature of the contest saw Nishikori level again, only for a third break in a row to go the way of Murray; a lead he would not scupper as he took the third set to edge ahead again. The Scot’s fist-pumping was evidence of a determination not to let his opponent off the hook again and he promptly served out for the set, bellowing out a roar of celebration after thumping a backhand victor down the line.
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If Murray was not rattled by the weird angle of the sun early in the match on his service tosses, he was bothered by the raindrops that fell and delayed the match in the second set with Nishikori sitting on a break point (which he would convert once the roof was finally closed and the court dried). Then she got to 15-40 on Williams’ serve, creating two break points that Williams made vanish with three aces in a row, at 117, 109 and 122 miles per hour. Murray beat Nishikori in the semi-finals at the Rio Games last month.
