Nishikori reaches last eight in D.C
Originally published on 04/08/17 00:00
The Japanese was the stronger performer from the outset and he deservedly overcame the three-time winner to set up a last eight meeting with Tommy Paul, who downed Gilles Muller 6-7(3) 6-4 6-3.
“It was a very tight match,” admitted Nishikori. “We played great tennis in the second set especially, and I was holding my serve really well. I dominated my service games and I was very happy with my tennis today.”
Kevin Anderson aced his way past top seed, Dominic Thiem, 6-3 6-7(6) 7-6(7) in a pulsating clash in the American capital. The South African saved a match-point before edging a thrilling deciding set tiebreak.
“It feels great,” said Anderson after his gruelling win. ‘I’ve worked really hard and committed myself to playing the kind of tennis I want to play. I could do that on the practice court and sometimes struggled to bring it to the match court, but now I’m succeeding with that more often.”
Anderson’s quarter-final opponent will be Yuki Bhambri. The Indian, who stunned Gael Monfils in the second round, overcame Guido Pella 6-7(5) 6-3 6-1.
Milos Raonic is also safely through after a 7-6(7) 6-4 success over Marcos Baghdatis. The Canadian did not face a break-point en route to the last eight and Jack Sock – who defeated Jared Donaldson 7-6(6) 6-2 – will provide his next challenge.
"I don't know if his game has changed so much since we last played, but I'm a more efficient player with my return game," said Raonic. "I take advantage of those second-serve opportunities and stay sharp on my serve as always.”
Elsewhere at the Cit Open, Alexander Zverev defeated Tennys Sandgren 7-5 7-5 and Daniil Medvedev claimed another big victory as he took out Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 6-2.
In other news, Andy Murray has announced that he won’t be featuring at next week’s Rogers Cup in Montreal. The 30-year-old has not yet recovered from the hip injury which troubled him at Wimbledon and he joins Marin Cilic and Stan Wawrinka on the sidelines.
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