’12 champ Murray overwhelms Dimitrov, reaches US Open QFs

Kei Nishikori beats world number two Andy Murray 1-6 6-4 4-6 6-1 7-5 in the quarter-finals of the US Open on Wednesday afternoon.

Dimitrov had won their only meeting this year in Miami and came into the match talking of a return to form, but he troubled Murray for barely a handful of points.

“They stopped the point and I was just curious why that was and that was it”, Murray said. “I didn’t serve good enough”.

“But after that I don’t think so”.

After the weird sequence, Murray would lose seven straight games, including the last five of the fourth set to tie the match up at two sets apiece and the first two games of the fifth set.

Next up for Murray is Japan’s Olympic bronze medallist Kei Nishikori, a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) victor over Ivo Karlovic.

Karlovic fired 21 aces in the contest but Nishikori’s 44 winners and a miserly seven unforced errors proved the key. It slows the conditions down and becomes easier to return. Discipline has been better I think overall.

“This is the semi-final of the Davis Cup, we are leaving no stone unturned in our preparations and I know that our team will give their best effort, and fight for every point in this tie”.

Asked about his fastest serve, Murray said: “I served one at 145 in San Jose, but the next day they recalibrated the gun, because it was completely wrong”.

He will face the victor of Wednesday night’s quarterfinal match between Juan Martin del Potro and Stan Wawrinka.

The second-ranked Murray could face resurgent Juan Martin del Potro in the best-of-five series at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, from September 16-18.

Del Potro, the lowest-ranked quarter-finalist in 25 years, has a 4-2 head-to-head record over the 31-year-old Swiss including an impressive victory at Wimbledon earlier this year.

Wawrinka, a former Australian and French Open champion, reached a fourth successive quarter-final in NY with a hard-fought 6-4, 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 win over Illya Marchenko, the world number 63 from Ukraine. Earlier this year, he was on the brink of retirement after undergoing three wrist surgeries.

But if you want to make history, you have to conquer some giants along the way.

Smith said he will wait until the team arrive in Glasgow to determine who his second singles player will be, and whether the Murray brothers will team up for the doubles, or whether he brings in Dom Inglot to play alongside Jamie.

Murray let the issue fester as Nishikori rolled through five games in a row, including two breaks, to force a decider. Murray said he felt Nishikori was “able to dictate more of the points” with the roof closed.

However, the 2009 US Open champion is playing well above that ranking, as evidenced by the silver medal in Rio that earned him a wild card invitation to the final Grand Slam of the year. Now she’s blown past that milestone, riding the momentum of a breakthrough title at Cincinnati, where she beat second-ranked Angelique Kerber in the final.

But after going 0 for 12 on break points in the second set, Williams righted herself, broke on her first opportunity of the third to go ahead 3-1, and was on her way.

Murray dropped just five games against the talented Bulgarian, winning 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.

However, it will be Nishikori who goes through to tomorrow’s semi-finals, with Novak Djokovic facing Gael Monfils in the other semi.