Williams, Murray, del Potro seek to book spots in US Open SF

Nishikori’s last trip to the semifinals came in 2014, when he finished runner-up to Marin Cilic.

In Tuesday’s other men’s quarter-final, Lucas Pouille, who knocked out 14-time major victor Rafael Nadal in five sets on Sunday, faces French compatriot Gael Monfils.

So alarming was the slump against Lorenzi that Ivan Lendl and Murray’s assistant coach, Jamie Delgado, felt the need to give him a pep talk. Nishikori was thoroughly out of sorts in the first set.

Karlovic fired 21 aces in the contest but Nishikori’s 44 winners and a miserly seven unforced errors proved the key.

But he was simply delaying the inevitable as the second seed took a two-set lead in the next game.

Dealing with the rowdy US Open crowd is one thing, but Andy Murray also had a odd gong noise to contend with in his defeat to Kei Nishikori. This has been an impressive, but not unprecedented run for the Japanese player.

However, the break in play appeared to have an impact on the reigning Wimbledon champion, who conceded the second set limply. Nishikori pounced to break and then served out the win on his second serve point. During a rally, a mysterious gong sound echoed through Arthur Ashe Stadium. He won 27 of 39 points at net, almost more than twice as many as Murray. He played some good stuff at the Olympics and won the bronze. That’s exactly what happened in the fourth set. It’s obviously an unbelievable court to play on, a fantastic atmosphere.

After winning the opening set in just 37 minutes, Murray’s hopes of clinching a quick triumph were dashed by the rain which curtailed play at 3-3 in the second set.

Murray slammed his racket against the net and cursed.

That point effectively ended the match.

Waiting for the 26-year-old next will be either 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro or third seed Stan Wawrinka.

Serena Williams surpassed Roger Federer for the most Grand Slam match victories, taking her tally to 308 after she beat Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova 6-2, 6-3 for a place in the last eight. “Just because you play badly a couple of days ago doesn’t mean I’m going to play badly [in the next match]”.

Austrian Thiem, ranked 10th in the world, was a set and a break down when he pulled out with a knee injury.

“It’s going to be great to play (Del Potro)”, Wawrinka said in an on-court interview. “It worked really well”.

“I wanted to make sure today that if I got ahead, I stayed on top of him, didn’t have any dip in concentration or my level, and stuck to my tactics that were working well”. “So I’m not expecting to do it again”. “This is one of my favorite Grand Slams”.

Even after utterly destroying Gregor Dimitrov in the US Open Round of 16 (6-1, 6-2, 6-2), Murray hardly let himself get comfortable.

Murray was annoyed because when he had complained of a sound disturbance earlier in the match, the umpire said in such instances the players would play on.