Kei Nishikori hits a forehand return to Andy Murray during their quarterfinal match at the US Open on Wednesday.
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Pliskova will now face off against Serena Williams, the favourite for the tournament moving to within two victories of overtaking Steffi Graf’s all-time grand slam singles record after overcoming an obdurate Simona Halep in three sets.
Andy Murray had earlier claimed to be having sleepless nights against the Japanese World No. 7 ahead of their quarterfinal encounter.
Kei Nishikori has amazed the whole world when he defeated the Wimbledon and Olympics victor and 2012 US Open champion, Andy Murray in US Open championship. The only time Nishikori had defeated Murray was back in 2014 at the ATP World Tour Finals. Murray roared and punched the air as he went to the sideline.
First a rain delay, lasting 22 minutes while the roof was closed, turned momentum in Nishikori’s favour and then a loud noise from the stadium’s malfunctioning sound system derailed Murray’s charge. I didn’t quite start well and lost 6-1.
However, things changed dramatically in the second set.
If he can outduel the Swiss in the semifinal, Nishikori will be out to exorcise some demons in the final to make up for the straight-sets final loss he suffered two years ago against Marin Cilic of Croatia.
He was in tears on the eve of the final game before the two men embraced at the net.
The same noise came from the speakers again at 4-1 in the fourth set.
The pendulum swung once more in the fourth set, with Murray suddenly the man making mistakes.
As a rule, that would help those looking to return big serves because it slows those serves down.
That cost him dearly very soon.
The Briton wound up losing 12 of 14 points right after the let call and seven games in a row to drop that set 6-1 and trail 2-0 in the fifth.
Earlier, Murray acknowledged a brief dip in play after the argument over the let but preferred to focus on other reasons for his exit. Instead of trailing 3-0, which was almost the case, Halep wound up ahead 3-1.
He would lose 7-5 in the fifth and deciding set.
At 2-2 in the second set another series of errors cost Nishikori his serve, but he broke back immediately.
Murray did have a chance to take the set, battling back from being down at the break twice, but he double-faulted at 30-30 to give Nishikori a break point.
“But I knew if I wanted to win this, I needed to step it up in the third set”.
“This Slam, in particular, I think for all of the players, especially the ones, you know, that have done well over the summer period on the hard courts, it’s, you know, a tough one”, Murray said.
“I saw some opportunity to come in (to the net) today so I tried to be aggressive. It worked really well”. “They stopped the point and I was just curious why that was”, said Murray.
He added: “After a few days away I would imagine I’d be very happy with how I have done”.
“I could have won the match for sure”, said Murray, the No. 2 seed and 2012 champion at Flushing Meadows.
Meanwhile, Serena Williams was tested for the first time at the Flushing Meadows this year.
Nishikori gathered himself after a light rain forced a closing of the roof at 3-3 in the second set that interrupted play for some 20 minutes and allowed him to meet with his team in the locker room.
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Stan Wawrinka is one set from his first U.S. Open final.
