Reuters
New York, Sept 8: Japan’s Kei Nishikori overcame second seed Andy Murray for a gruelling 1-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 see-saw victory here Wednesday to reach the US Open semifinals. He will meet Stan Wawrinka, a 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 winner over 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro.
Nishikori, who became the first Asian man to reach a Grand Slam final when he finished runner-up here in 2014, broke the Scotsman in the 11th game of the fifth set with a brilliant reflex volley and served out to complete the triumph.
The upset ended a stellar run by Murray that had taken him to seven successive finals, including victories at Wimbledon, the Rio Olympics, Queen’s Club and Rome.
“It was too exciting on the court, but I tried to stay calm,” Nishikori said in an on-court interview. “It was really tough to stay calm. There were many ups and downs. In the end it was great tennis, so very happy,” added the Japanese.
The four-hour match was a roller-coaster ride of emotions and momentum swings from the start. Murray hit a low point in the fourth set when Nishikori was serving at 1-1 after having an argument with chair umpire Mariana Alves regarding crowd problems. He could never recover from that effect till when he was 0-2 down in the fifth set.
Still, Murray was gracious in defeat. “I’m not too disappointed. It was a good match,” he told reporters. “Disappointed not to have won, but I’ve had a good run. I would’ve loved to go further but that wasn’t to be today (Wednesday).”
Wawrinka, the third seed in the tournament was down 1-4 in the first set against crowd favourite Del Potro. But the Argentine’s main weapon, the dreaded forehand started misfiring and the Swiss took advantage of it to win the first set in the tie-breaker.
Del Potro came back to win the second set and restore parity in the match but it was evident midway into the third set that he had run out of steam. He remained glued to baseline, not willing to attack and Wawrinka took full advantage of it.
“It was an amazing match for me, one of my toughest matches, mentally and physically against Juan Martin,” Wawrinka said in an on-court interview. “He’s an incredible player and I’m really happy to have won that match.”
