Del Potro won just 6 total points on his second serve the last two sets while Wawrinka lost just 3 points over that span on his first serve.
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But in the 11th game, Murray set up a break chance for Nishikori with a costly double fault.
It set off the usually mild-mannered Scotsman, who argued with the chair umpire and tournament supervisor.
Nishikori used it as a momentum turner and advanced to the Semifinals, 1-6 6-4 4-6 6-1 7-5.
“They stopped the point, and I was just curious why that was”, Murray said.
“But after that, I don’t think so”.
At the US Open, organizers didn’t have such a rule in place.
Since the return of Ivan Lendl as his coach, Murray had enjoyed nothing but success; a win at Queen’s Club was followed by a second Wimbledon title and the retention of his Olympic crown. It forced the Japanese player to settle for the bronze medal. “Yeah, definitely I was struggling with his backhand”, said the 26-year-old.
This year, the world No2 dipped out of the quarter-final clash in Serbia but still went to support the team in their 3-2 win.
“Well, yeah, I was really confident”.
Two-time major champion Wawrinka has lost both US Open semi-finals he has played in and knows he faces a big challenge as he attempts to avoid a repeat. ‘It was really hard match.
It didn’t start that great for Nishikori, who couldn’t get out of his own way in the first.
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“In the end I think I did really well, but first and before the rain delay I think I was little bit out of my concentration”. “Yeah, many breaks today”.
Nishikori would want to bring back memories of his successful 2014 campaign, in which he defeated Wawrinka in the quarter-final en route to the final. He’s playing well. He’s strong mentally.
The Swiss broke back in the seventh game and although Del Potro, whose career was nearly derailed by a series of wrist injuries, saved two set points in the tiebreaker, a rare forehand error gave up the set. But he came up against an opponent who was in truly inspired form.
The other quarterfinal between Stan Wawrinka and Juan del Porto was ongoing late Wednesday night.
Murray lost his grip on the match from that game onwards, but Cowan insists he can still look back with pride on his achievements in 2016. “Yeah, I’m very excited to watch match tonight”. “(I realized) I have to change something to win the match”.
“There were many ups and downs”, Nishikori, ranked seventh, told the crowd.
“You want to try and complete as many matches outdoors as possible”.
He will stay collected. Nishikori won the Sportsmanship Award from the USTA. News stories displayed here appear in our category for Sports and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.com and The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization.
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“It’s a great honor to get sportsmanship”, he said. “I’m not going to have the best perspective on things right this minute, but, you know, after a few days, you know, away and stuff, I would imagine I’d be very happy with how I have done and, you know, learn from this match today and the summer as a whole, because, you know, it’s been tough”.
