Murray had a touch of trouble closing out the match as he mis-hit a couple of shots and a light drizzle held up play again for a few minutes before the Briton executed a splendid drop volley to end it on his third match point.
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When questioned as to why he has been playing back-to-back matches despite the issues with his wrist, Nadal said that the condition would be no better if he takes time off the court.
“I really didn’t expect to be here” said Murray.
The Croat, who split with coach Goran Ivanisevic earlier this year, had only won two ATP 250 titles since then, but this victory suggests he could be a force to be reckoned with in NY. Cilic has won seven of his last eight matches on hard court. Wawrinka now plays Grigor Dimitrov, a victor over 16th seed Feliciano Lopez 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6).
Nadal defeated Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 6-1 7-6 (7/4), while Wawrinka, Switzerland’s former French Open champion, had to resume his second-round encounter with the teenager Jared Donaldson on Wednesday morning after heavy rain put paid to Tuesday’s late action.
“I knew that coming straight from the Olympics I was going to be exhausted”. “I’m so happy to have beaten such a tough player”.
Steve Johnson’s 6-3 7-6 (8/6) victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga saw him become the top-ranked American in men’s tennis.
After securing his 600th career win against Kevin Anderson, Andy Murray booked his passage to the Western and Southern Open semi-final, defeating Bernard Tomic 6-4 6-4 in Cincinnati on Friday.
Controversial Australia Nick Kyrgios was an early casualty, however, losing 7-6 (7/2) 4-6 7-6 (8/6) loss to Borna Coric and smashing three rackets in one changeover along the way.
“It’s good to have a match like this to start the tournament”.
“I did two short sessions yesterday and two short sessions today. I did quite a few things well today”, Raonic said.
“I felt that I played really, really high quality tennis”.
“I don’t know regret, but definitely what we call in my generation ‘FOMO, ‘ ‘fear of missing out, ‘ for not being there”.
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Karolina Pliskova upset Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-1. Bencic is still coming back from a wrist injury that forced her to quit a Wimbledon second-round match.
