She was bothered over the past two weeks by an injured left Achilles tendon and back pain, but still reached her fourth quarterfinal in NY.
Advertisement
Nishikori felt the point should have been replayed.
Halep staved off all 12 break points held by Williams in the second set and forced a third. Murray missed that opportunity as well but capitalized on two more unforced errors as Murray took a 5-1 lead. And aside from an edgy double fault, he finished as he had started, at the net, 6-4, after four hours.
The second set went with serve until the fifth game where Murray applied the pressure at 0-30 on the sixth seeds serve.
No wonder he has slept like a baby since he arrived in NY. It was all square to 2-2, before Murray grabbed a break as a few drops of rain fell.
WOMEN’S RESULTS (Quarterfinals): No. 10 Karolina Pliskova advanced to her first Grand Slam semifinal with a straight-sets victory over unseeded Ana Konjuh.
Nishikori admitted the delay in play, which allowed for the roof to close, allowed him and his coaches Michael Chang and Dante Bottini to discuss a new approach.
Murray made it 2-2, only for Nishikori to lead 4-2. “On set point in the second set, there was a noise, and you said we keep playing when that happens”, Murray said.
After the Olympics, British media began contemplating scenarios that would see Murray supplant Djokovic at No. 1.
Cruising up two sets to one and bossing Nishikori around in search of the final, decisive break at 1-1 in the fourth, Murray’s swiped backhand down the line on break point was interrupted by a loud noise that sounded like the bong of a bell. Murray was so distracted that he argued with both umpire and referee after failing to make the break and then conceded his serve 1-3. He beat Nishikori in straight sets in the semifinals at Rio de Janeiro, part of a 7-1 head-to-head edge for Murray coming into Wednesday. There was a lot of time after then. Murray has dropped only one set in the tournament, and del Potro has lost none.
Most watchers would likely have called Murray to win this one given his extensively dominant record against Kei Nishikori, but what we saw tonight was a disturbed Murray and a Nishikori who, as always, held his cool.
“It was really hard match”, Nishikori, who fired 48 winners to Murray’s 29, said.
“You know it’s going to be painful physically and mentally to stay there, so I had to adapt a little bit my game”. Nishikori had no problems closing out a fairly easy set for the former finalist, holding to love to take it 6-1. That only served to precipitate the Meltdown of Murray, who then got broken back by Nishikori in the final set.
Nishikori went 40-0 up when he served at 4-3, only to lose the next five points.
At the end of an encounter that was as gripping for the spectators as it was gruelling for the players, Nishikori raised his fists to the air in triumph as Murray, the number 2 seed, swiftly exited the court, stopping only to sign a couple of autographs.
The 2014 runner-up from Japan edged past this year’s Wimbledon and Olympic champion 1-6 6-4 4-6 6-1 7-5 in just under four hours of drama on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The world number two held a crucial service game to move a game away from the semifinals.
However, a return to his error-prone ways cost Nishikori the third set even as the opponents managed to break each other frequently.
Advertisement
Defending champion Djokovic had another abbreviated match, securing his spot in the semifinals when France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga retired with a knee injury after dropping the first two sets, 6-3, 6-2.
