Kei Nishikori has admitted it was nice to get revenge on Andy Murray after knocking the Scot out of the US Open on Wednesday.
The pair met in the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows, with Murray widely expected to blow his opponent away, having defeated him 6-1 6-4 in the semi-finals of the Olympics last month.
All seemed to be going to plan for the Wimbledon champion after he won the opening set 6-1 but a rain delay and a sound from the crowd clearly irked him, and he eventually went down 1-6 6-4 4-6 6-1 7-5 in three hours and 57 minutes.
Nishikori will now face Stan Wawrinka in the semi-finals in New York, following the Swiss player’s last-eight victory over former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro.
The 26-year-old is 1.73 to make it through to Sunday’s final while Wawrinka is 2.05.
The Japanese star became the first Asian male to reach the final of a Grand Slam when he lost to Marin Cilic at the US Open in 2014 and remains on track to go one better this time around.
Having also gone down to Murray earlier this year in the Davis Cup, Nishikori, who is 8.00 to win the tournament, admitted after the match that it was nice to come out on the right side of the result.
“I think it means a lot, especially since I have been losing to Andy a lot,” he said.
“And especially this stage. It’s a big opportunity for me to play today’s match. “I was ready to play today’s match. Actually, we just played this year a really long match.
I think it was close to five hours in Davis Cup and I lost the match, so it was great to (get) revenge.”
Leave a comment
Link Dafabet