While he is still the favourite to win the last Grand Slam of the year, considering his struggle in the last few months, this is certainly Murray’s best chance to add another major trophy to his cabinet.
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The world number two has a 7-1 record against Nishikori whose only win over the Briton came at the World Tour Finals in 2014.
The British player will head back for next week’s Davis Cup semi-final against Argentina, wiser for the experience and hopefully only temporarily chastened. But with Djokovic at the other side of the net, someone hits the panic button and despite having all shots in his repertoire, Murray is seen wasting a lot of energy by screaming towards his box – a familiar and frustrating sight for tennis fans across the world.
“It feels great to play a full match after a weird couple of days when I didn’t have too much tennis”.
Djokovic, who now plays Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, was generous in his appraisal of Edmund’s efforts.
You can beat the thirteenth seed and twentieth seed, as Edmund did in the past week, but the cliff face becomes way steeper when the opposition is a fully-focussed world No 1.
“He dropped only one set en route to the quarter-finals so I’m looking forward to that one”.
The defending champion in NY had a freaky route to the last 16, spending just over three hours on court in the previous three rounds.
Djokovic, looking for his third major of 2016, boasts a remarkable record in NY.
“If you look back a year ago, losing last round in quallies (qualifying), where I was with my game, now where I’m at with my game, making fourth round, it’s nice to know I have improved over that year”, he said.
The 21-year-old Edmund, whose previous best major performance was a run to the third round at the French Open, said: “It’s given me a lot more belief in my game. It was tough but I came off a lot happier than I was during the match because I started to impose myself in the third set”.
Young Frenchman Lucas Pouille scored a stunning, five-set upset over 14-times grand slam singles champion Rafa Nadal, winning a climactic tiebreak 8-6 to reach the U.S. Open quarter-finals.
Monfils, who turned 30 on September 1, is in his third quarter-final in NY.
Wednesday’s other quarter-final sees 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro, ranked at 142 but on the comeback trail after three wrist surgeries, tackle third seed Stan Wawrinka, a former Australian and French Open victor.
After ending up being the runners-up at Rio Olympics 2016, Del Potro, at 142 in the world, has also become the lowest-ranked man in 25 years to reach the last eight.
However, the two have never met on hard courts. Baseline shots, both forehand and backhand, were working very well.
“I needed a little bit of massage”, he said of treatment similar to that which he received during his opening-round match against Jerzy Janowicz of Poland.
“It’s going to be important to try to dictate and be aggressive on the court”.
The retired judge stood his ground that he had no regrets for what they did then.
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Mr Wario says he hopes to meet representatives of the International Olympic Committee in a few days or next week.
