Nishikori rolls into Washington quarter-finals

Nishikori won both prior meetings with Mayer at Grand Slams without dropping a set, in the second round at Wimbledon in 2013 and last year in the third round at Flushing Meadows on his way to the final, where he lost to Marin Cilic.

Playing almost mistake-free, Kei Nishikori moved into his 11th ATP quarterfinal of the season by beating 16th-seeded Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-4, 6-4 at the Citi Open on Thursday. Take away the tiebreakers, and Querrey won more total points, 74-67.

In the first set, which was interrupted twice as light rainstorms in the area caused delays lasting less than ten minutes each, Nishikori managed a decisive break in the seventh game.

The second-seeded Nishikori made only seven unforced errors, half as many winners as he produced in the 1 1/2-hour victory.

Although Nishikori will be a bit underdone just over three weeks from the start of the US Open, the match-up will nonetheless give Groth an idea of whether his power game can hold up against the game’s elite.

The 40th-ranked Pavlyuchenkova, the runner-up at the hard-court tuneup for the U.S. Open in 2012, will face Christina McHale of the United States for a semifinal berth.

Groth scored a 6-3, 6-4 win over world number 19 Feliciano Lopez, who took out Lleyton Hewitt, on Friday to reach the last eight, having beaten world number 20 Viktor Troicki in the second round. “Nothing changes too much for me”, Groth said, looking ahead to facing Nishikori. “I’m going to be aggressive and I’m going to do what I do”. “It’s great to be in the quarterfinals and I hope I can keep going and going”. The fourth seed from France is taking on 15th seed Jack Sock. The 86th-ranked Berankis defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili – who knocked off top-seeded Andy Murray on Wednesday – 7-5, 6-4.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, of Russian Federation, returns the ball to Belinda…