U.S. Tennis Open Central.....Wagers,Results,Pictures,Videos,Etc.

[Greenbacks]

Louis Armstrong: A final farewell.

At 5:52 under a slate-gray sky Tuesday evening, a lefthanded Spaniard named Feliciano Lopez slammed his fastest serve of the day – 131 MPH – into the body of American Mike Bryan. Bryan’s forehand return veered wide by a couple of inches, a shot that not only ended a US Open men’s doubles quarterfinal, but also the storied, tumultuous 38-year run of Louis Armstrong Stadium, on the eastern edge of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
The next thing that will be slammed in this corner of Queens will be the concrete of the Stadium itself, the demolition scheduled to commence not long after the conclusion of the 2016 Open.
Since the US Open moved from the grass and gentility of Forest Hills to the hard courts and hubbub of Flushing Meadows, Armstrong has been the site of more than 2,000 matches across nearly four decades, the first of them won by Bjorn Borg over Bob Hewitt, 6-2, 6-0, on another Tuesday night – Aug. 29, 1978. The last of them was contested by two Lopezes, Feliciano and his countryman (but not his brother), Marc, and a pair of Bryans, Mike and his brother, Bob. The third-seeded Bryans, 38-year-old twins and the most successful doubles team in tennis annals with 111 titles, among them a record 16 Grand Slams, were upset 7-6, 4-6, 6-3.
“That we played the last match in this special stadium and that we beat the Bryans, the best doubles team in history, makes this day very special for us,” said Feliciano Lopez, wearing a New York Mets baseball cap in the interview room.

In the last of the three doubles matches scheduled on Armstrong’s farewell day, the players had to deal with two rain delays, something that will not happen when the new stadium is up in 2018, as it will be equipped with a roof. There was also the regular rumbling of Long Island Railroad trains, and a steady stream of jets taking off from LaGuardia Airport throughout the match. Commotion has always seemed to be part of the Armstrong experience, and its final day was no different.
The crowd was sparse at the start, but when the Bryans took the second set people began to pour in, with the usual stragglers elbowing their way past ushers and making the players wait before finding their seats. Fans heard Louis Armstrong himself singing “Hello, Dolly,” on a couple of changeovers, which seemed vastly more appropriate than Deep Purple’s “Smoke On the Water,” which was played right before the second rain delay.
The building may not stir quite the same feelings as places such as the original Yankee Stadium or Ebbets Field or the Garden on 8th Ave. and 50th St., all homes to New York teams, but for tennis fans, Louis Armstrong Stadium has its own pull. It was where 16-year-old Tracy Austin and her bouncing pigtails became the youngest champion ever in 1979, and where John McEnroe beat Bjorn Borg in an epic five-setter in the 1980 men’s final, a match still regarded as one of the great championship battles in history. It was where Ivan Lendl made it to a record eight straight finals, and where Jimmy Connors celebrated his 39th birthday by beating Aaron Krickstein, in the same year (1991) that two ball-bashing teenagers, Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati, had a stirring semifinal that was decided by a third-set tiebreaker.

Every year seemed to brings its own theatre, even after the massive big brother next door, Arthur Ashe, made its world debut in 1997. There was no way that Bernard and Barbara Simons, big tennis fans and a retired couple from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, were going to miss the farewell. After all, they have been coming to the place from the time it opened for tennis, and even before, at the 1964-65 World’s Fair. The Simons play tennis three or four times a week, and are ardent fans of the Rangers, Mets, Nets and Knicks, along with this very special fortnight of tennis that comes at the end of every summer.
Barbara Simons was sitting next to her husband, just a couple of rows up from the aisle behind the baseline. She looked around at the blue seats that surround the court at all angles with quirky intimacy. A train whistle blew. A plane flew over. What were you expecting in Louis Armstrong Stadium?
Silence?
“It really does make you feel nostalgic,” said Barbara Simons, who spent 34 years teaching elementary school in city schools. “I have a lot of wonderful memories here.”
Said Bernard Simons, “You’ve got to go with change. They want to make it better.”

 

[Greenbacks]

 

[Greenbacks]

Day 10 brings quarters back.

The final four quarterfinal matches headline play on Day 10 of the 2016 US Open. On the men’s side, second seed Andy Murray takes on No. 6 Kei Nishikori, while the third seed, Stan Wawrinka, faces off against Juan Martin del Potro, the lone men’s quarterfinalist without a number next to his name. The women’s quarters feature top seed Serena Williams against fifth-seeded Simona Halep, and No. 10 seed Karolina Pliskova vs. Ana Konjuh, who’s also blossomed into this round without the benefit of a seed. The best in the sport are now three matches shy of tennis’ toughest title. That’s the formula for a perfect 10.
Murray is looming large as a favorite to stand alone at the end of this Flushing fortnight. The 2012 US Open champion, also the owner of two Wimbledon titles, has been about as close to perfect as a player can be through four rounds here. The Great Scot, who won a gold medal in singles at this summer’s Rio Olympics, is trying to become just the fourth man in the Open era to reach all four major finals in a year. Murray, 29, has lost just one set in reaching this point, and his fourth-round, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 drubbing of No. 22 seed Grigor Dimitrov was the sort of clinic for which you’d normally pay $100 an hour. Dimitrov, certainly no slouch, looked completely helpless against Murray’s relentless assault, as the second seed won 79 percent of his first-serve points, got in 85 percent of his returns and broke his opponent seven times, losing his own serve just once.
On Wednesday, Murray looks to continue that ethereal level of play against Japan’s rising son, Nishikori, who’s into the quarters here for the second time in three years. Nishikori, 26, has made a quiet advance to this point, but this match ought to go a long way toward pumping up the volume. A finalist here in 2014, Nishikori has all the tools—he serves well, returns better, is solid off the ground and moves brilliantly. Mostly, he’s consistent as a clock, playing with a relentless precision that works wonders in winding down whoever is on the other side of the net.

But it’s not so easy to out-steady Murray, especially the way he’s playing at this point. And as good as he is, Nishikori has never been able to make much of an impression against the man who would be king of Queens, trailing 7-1 in their career meetings. Sometimes, the other guy is just too good—and this is one of those times. In three, Murray is on to the semis.
“Too good” is a perfectly appropriate description of the play of del Potro, a tall talent whose resurgence here has been nothing short of amazing. The 2009 US Open champion, who’s been more off than on the tour in recent years due to four wrist surgeries, is making the ultimate comeback statement in reaching this point at the Open for the first time since 2012. The 27-year-old Argentine, playing as a wild card is, at No. 142, the lowest-ranked US Open quarterfinalist since Jimmy Connors made his historic run here in 1991 with a ranking of No. 174. A win Wednesday would make del Potro the first man to play his wild card into a semifinal appearance since Connors set this place on its ear that same year.
Del Potro gets his best test so far Wednesday night, as he takes on the third seed Wawrinka, who’s into the quarters here for the fourth consecutive year. A semifinalist in 2015, the 31-year-old Swiss has advanced to this point without yet having to face a seed. That said, the 2014 Australian Open champ has been pushed several times—including fighting off a match point in his third-round clash with Daniel Evans. But each time, Wawrinka has found a way to win and now finds himself across the net from del Potro at a major for the second time this year. The Argentine triumphed in the second round of Wimbledon this summer to up his career mark against Wawrinka to 4-2. Del Potro takes this one in four, closing to within two wins of the ultimate comeback statement.

Women’s top seed Williams, fresh off a historic fourth-round victory that gave her 308 career Slam wins—edging her past Roger Federer for the most by any player in history—looks to add to that total and continue her quest for even more history. If the six-time US Open champ can take the title here, she’ll have 23 major singles championships, untying her with Steffi Graf for most in the Open era. What’s more, a seventh US Open crown would have her standing alone for most in the history of this event, putting her one up on Chris Evert.
The game’s No. 1 has yet to drop a single set in reaching her 46th career Grand Slam quarterfinal. In fact, she’s dropped just 20 games in four matches. Tonight, she’ll take on a familiar foe in Halep, the 2014 runner-up at Roland Garros, who’s into the quarters for a second consecutive year. The 24-year-old Romanian, who reached the semifinals here in 2015, has taken three singles titles this year, including this summer’s hard-court event in Montreal. One of the game’s great returners, Halep has gotten in 87 percent of her returns through four matches, trailing only Angelique Kerber in that category. Still, she trails Williams more significantly in career head-to-heads, with the American holding a 7-1 edge, including a win on hard courts earlier this year at Indian Wells. Both women are solid sluggers, but let’s face it: no one packs the punch of Williams. In two, the top seed is on to the semis.
The surprising Pliskova vs. Konjuh quarterfinal is the result of both women playing particularly well and most of this quarter’s seeds failing to blossom. No. 10 seed Pliskova, however, has continually impressed in reaching her first major quarterfinal, never more so than in taking out two-time US Open champ Venus Williams in the fourth round. The Czech, 24, has taken two titles this year, including last month’s Cincinnati event. Croatia’s Konjuh, the 2013 US Open girls’ champion, planted a rather large seed in her own right, ousting the No. 4 seed, Agnieszka Radwanska, to gain her first major quarterfinal appearance.

In fact, neither woman has ever before been this deep in a major, but Pliskova’s experience would seem to give her an edge over her 18-year-old opponent, playing in just her second US Open main draw. In two, Pliskova gains the semis.

 

[Greenbacks]

U.S. Open.org Day 10 picks.

MEN

(3) Stan Wawrinka vs. Juan Martin del Potro
Few (if any) prognosticators had Juan Martin del Potro penciled through to the quarterfinals in Flushing Meadows, and no one, not even the 6-foot-6 Argentine himself, could have imagined he’d do so without dropping so much as a set. But here we are, just 10 months after his return to the practice courts following no less than three wrist surgeries, and the 27-year-old is playing some of his most inspired tennis since he first took the US Open by storm in 2009, dethroning Roger Federer in the title tilt.
The wild-card entrant has perfected the backhand slice of late. While it hasn’t produced many winners, the stroke has proven quite useful, keeping him in points and allowing him to get around to his powerstroke, his ballistic forehand. Del Potro played a total of just 14 games in his fourth-round matchup with Top 10 force Dominic Thiem, who retired midway through the second set with a bum knee. The extra rest should benefit del Potro, who experienced some right shoulder tightness in the same match.
The Tower of Tandil boasts a 4-2 head-to-head against the No. 3-seeded Stan Wawrinka dating back a decade, including a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 second-round shocker at Wimbledon earlier this summer. Unlike del Potro, the Swiss has at times labored through four matches, needing five tight sets to get past upset-minded Brit Daniel Evans in the third round. But the two-time US Open semifinalist has a knack for finding his groove in the second week here. Look for Wawrinka to push del Potro to the limit in this mouthwatering Arthur Ashe Stadium blockbuster, but del Potro will extend his feel-good run in five competitive sets to reach the semis.

(2) Andy Murray vs. (6) Kei Nishikori
As evidenced by his manhandling of Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round (6-1, 6-2, 6-2), 2012 US Open champ Andy Murray continues to be at the top of his game. We’re quite familiar with his best-in-class return of serve, his dividend-paying conditioning regimen, his solid ground strokes. But the 29-year-old Scot remains one of the most underrated servers on the ATP World Tour. Through four rounds in New York, Murray has won 90 percent (53-for-59) of his service games, and he even clocked a 141 mph offering in his win over Dimitrov.
But as his quarterfinal opponent, 2014 US Open runner-up Kei Nishikori, showed during his fourth-round triumph over perhaps the biggest server on Earth, Ivo Karlovic, he’s well adept at nullifying that stroke. The Japanese star has historically struggled against Murray. He is 1-7 against the two-time Olympic gold medalist, including losses this year in Davis Cup and at the Rio Games.
To stand a chance on Day 10 in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the 26-year-old will have to out-steady one of the steadiest performers in the business, patrolling the baseline with the kind of pugnacious defense that has made him a Top 10 force over the past three years. As Roger Federer once observed, “Doesn't matter what the score is, doesn't matter how long the match goes, you're aware that Kei is not going to go away.” Nishikori surely won’t go away easily, but he simply won’t have enough firepower for his opponent on this day. Murray in four.

WOMEN

(1) Serena Williams vs. (5) Simona Halep
The records are falling by the day for the world No. 1. With a 6-2, 6-1 dispatch of Yaroslava Shvedova in the fourth round, Serena Williams surpassed Roger Federer with her 308th match win on the Grand Slam stage, a new industry mark. And the American is now just three matches away from yet another hallowed number: 23. A major title on the final Sunday in Flushing would catapult her past Steffi Graf on the all-time charts and cement her place in the history of the sport.
Williams has been workmanlike in advancing to the elite eight at the US Open, surrendering just 20 games over four straight-set victories and winning 87 percent of her first-serve points.
“She's ambitious. She gives everything to win all the matches,” said her quarterfinal opponent, fifth-seeded Simona Halep.
The Romanian has only one win in eight career encounters with Williams, her only triumph a surprise 6-0, 6-2 decision at the WTA Finals in 2014. A semifinalist here last year, Halep is often at her best on the demanding hard courts of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and she’ll need to be at her best on Day 10 against Williams. She’s more than capable of clocking winners from anywhere on the court, even against a player the caliber of Williams, but it will be the determined American who moves into the semifinals in straight sets.

(10) Karolina Pliskova vs. Ana Konjuh
Karolina Pliskova’s three-set upset of Venus Williams in the round of 16 seemed a coming-of-age moment for the 24-year-old Czech baseliner, long an underachiever at the Grand Slams. Pliskova looked overwhelmed by the moment in the opening set, the idea of going up against a two-time titlist and home-country favorite in front of 23,000-plus fans simply too much to digest. But to the tattooed talent’s credit, she settled in, made some adjustments and stormed back to oust her sixth-seeded opponent in a third-set tiebreak 4-6, 6-4, 7-6. It was a gutsy performance.
Long one of the WTA Tour’s most potent servers, she has never been able to capitalize at the majors. Now in her fourth full year of playing the Grand Slams, she had previsouly never ventured beyond the third round. But she came into the US Open on the heels of winning the Cincinnati crown, impressively downing German Angelique Kerber, 6-3, 6-1, in the final, and would like nothing better than to make this a statement tournament.
She’ll be in uncharted waters against surprise quarterfinalist Ana Konjuh, whom she has never faced. The 92nd-ranked Croat has scalped seeds Kiki Bertens (No. 20) and Agnieszka Radwanska (No. 4) in reaching her career-first quarterfinal, and should not be taken lightly. She’ll need to adhere to her own tattoo (FAITH is inked on her left wrist), but it won’t be enough as the No. 10 seed Pliskova pulls though in straight sets.

 

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[Greenbacks]

Pliskova perseveres, pushes through.

Before Monday afternoon at the US Open, 24-year-old Karolina Pliskova was perhaps best known as the only player in the Top 20 who had never reached a quarterfinal at a major.
Probably not the kind of distinction the tall Czech was aiming for.
Playing for the first time in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the biggest stage in all of tennis, Pliskova was already deeper than she’d ever been in a Slam: the fourth round. For a player of her stature – she reached a career-high ranking of 7 last year and has won six WTA singles titles – not to have progressed farther in a major was a serious void on her resume.
Seeking to get that monkey off her back, Pliskova was facing a legend: Venus Williams, playing her home Slam, which she had won twice. And who at age 36 was experiencing a late-career renaissance, back up to No. 6 in the world.
Pliskova looked tight from the start, awed by the arena and situation. “I was kind of nervous. It was not nervous like shaky,” admitted Pliskova later. “I knew was big match. Maybe if I win it, I'm in quarterfinals.”

Deep in the first set, Pliskova finally began to find her rhythm and play her way into the match.
If she was overwhelmed by nerves in the early going, Pliskova proved not to be when it counted the most. The late stages of the match may prove to be a turning point for this talented, previously underachieving pro.
Pliskova snatched the second set with fine clutch hitting and jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the deciding set. She squandered that advantage and faced a match point in the 10th game, down 4-5. The Czech player smacked a backhand within inches of both the baseline and sideline, and she valiantly crushed a swinging forehand volley for the winner to stay alive.
Pliskova served for the match at 6-5. She sprinted to a 40-0 lead, landing three match points on her racquet.
But she lost all three of them, as Venus cracked a series of winners, and her serve. Pliskova limped into the deciding tiebreak – the ultimate pressure cooker.
For her opponent, Venus Williams, the holder of seven Slams, pressure situations like this were nothing new.

For Pliskova, it was unchartered territory.
Rather than fold, Pliskova seized the moment. She put those blown match points, and the capacity crowd roaring for Williams, out of her mind. On her fifth match point of the day, Pliskova handcuffed Venus with a big serve to advance to her first career Slam quarterfinal.
Pliskova triumphed in the most pressure-filled moments of her career. “I couldn't be just mad that I didn't make it because I still had a chance to win the tiebreak,” said Pliskova of the wasted match points.
“In the end I was still saying to myself, I have to be aggressive, not be the one who is pushing. I was fighting with the nerves.”
The 24-year-old Czech is no newcomer to the tour. She has won two singles titles in 2016 and six overall. She is the tour leader in aces this year. Yet it’s fair to say that the tennis world was beginning to wonder why someone with all the tools – not to mention some real weapons – hadn’t played up to her potential in major events.
Tall and slender, solid and stoic, Pliskova is the quintessential quiet top 10 player.

With four matches under her belt at the Open, she heads into Wednesday's quarterfinal against Ana Konjuh on a nine-match win streak. In Cincinnati prior to the Open, she won the title by blitzing both second-ranked Angelique Kerber and fourth-ranked Garbiñe Muguruza, surrendering just four games to each.
Pliskova’s clean, textbook ground strokes are smooth and flat, and they produce easy power. Her service motion is elegant and effortless. If the Czech has a liability, it is her court coverage; at 6-foot-1, she is not the fleetest of movers. And while she is aggressive with her groundstrokes, she could learn to push forward more often, to finish off points behind her penetrating shots.
Karolina Pliskova is, like Venus Williams, part of a sister act. She has an identical twin, Kristyna, who is also a tennis pro. Karolina plays right-handed; her sister is a leftie. Karolina won the junior girl’s championship at the Australian Open in 2010, while her sister Kristyna won the juniors at Wimbledon the same year.
But their careers have diverged in recent years; Karolina is ranked No. 11 in the world, Kristyna 122. Karolina is now the one in a position to dream about majors.
Could she visualize winning the Open? “I'm not thinking about this thing at all. I know it's still far. It's closer than it was yesterday, but it's still far.”
To get there, the Czech will need another leap forward. “Everything is different probably this week. But I have to take it step by step,” she said.
If she plays to her enormous potential, everything could be different from here on out.

 

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The future is now for Ana Konjuh.

Ana Konjuh looked like the next big thing. In 2013, she won both the Australian Open and US Open girls’ singles crowns on her way to becoming the top-ranked junior in the world. She was 15.
That tournament in Flushing Meadows was her last as a junior, and she started what was expected to be a promising professional career. In the Croat’s first tour-level match just a few months later, she beat then-No. 14 Roberta Vinci three days after turning 16. Only days later, she decided to undergo right elbow surgery in order to deal with pain she had tolerated for years.
“I mean I had that problem since I was 12 or 13, so I was just playing the junior level with it, taking painkillers,” Konjuh said. “That’s not the result [I wanted], that I have to just take painkillers and everything’s going to be OK. So I needed to find the solution for my elbow, and I think we found that.”
Any momentum she had from her junior success to the big win over Vinci was out the window. Instead, Konjuh spent four months away from competitive tournaments to recover. That was not the only injury she has dealt with, though. Konjuh has also suffered from wrist problems and a stress fracture in her back. Breaking onto the professional scene is tough enough, forget dealing with a myriad of injuries as a teenager.

“It’s tough to come back after that every time and you know it’s a part of our job, the injuries, the time off,” Konjuh said. “It’s a bit frustrating when you’re young ... [but] I think what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
Earlier this season, Konjuh faced adversity that had nothing to do with her health. In April she parted ways with Kristijan Schneider, her coach of seven years.
“I think that we kind of got sick of each other,” Konjuh said with a laugh. “I grew up with him, so we knew each other just too well and it was time for a change.”
Konjuh said that naturally it took time to get used to working with her new coach, Jelena Kostanic Tosic, who climbed as high as No. 32 in the rankings. But after going 5-5 in tour-level matches ahead of Wimbledon, she was on the doorstep of a breakthrough. Playing No. 3 seeded Agnieszka Radwanska at the All England Club, Konjuh served for the match twice in the third set and held three match points. But at 7-7 in the decider, she turned her ankle on a ball while running up to the net to retrieve a Radwanska drop shot. She did not win a point the rest of the match.

“I had three match points before so I was a bit sad to not take the opportunities, and then that happened with the ankle so I was like, ‘Oh god, really? Another month off?’” Konjuh said. “But in that moment I was just sad that I didn’t get the opportunity to finish the match.”
It was not a major injury, though. And despite losing early in Rio and New Haven, Konjuh came into the US Open healthy, which was perhaps most important. She won three matches against higher-ranked opponents to earn a rematch with Radwanska in the round of 16. There, she would not let another opportunity slip away, upsetting the Pole, 6-4, 6-4, in a powerful effort in which she dominated play with 38 winners.
“I was very impressed. I loved what I saw last night,” ESPN tennis analyst Mary Joe Fernandez said. “That type of tennis was Top 10 tennis.”
Just a few years ago, Konjuh was on top of the world. But while the time since has not gone as planned, she has proven this US Open why she will in fact be a star in the future.

“I think the main thing is to stay healthy,” Fernandez said. “If she could get on a patch where she can play consistently week in and week out and have faith that her body is going to hold up, then there’s no question in my mind that she should be in the Top 20, at least.”
Konjuh’s delayed breakthrough to the spotlight was not for a lack of talent nor a sense of overwhelming pressure. She does not think of her junior success today.
“I mean I somehow forgot the juniors,” Konjuh said. “I mean, yeah, it was the good old days. But I was 15 or 16 at the time. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into and I think that’s just a part, a step to the pro level and I was just trying to prepare myself for it. I’m not adding any pressure.”
“My season wasn’t that well this year so I just came here maybe [thinking I would play] a round or two, that would be great,” said Konjuh, who entered the tournament at No. 92 in the world. “But here I am playing the quarters of the US Open.”
Many players dream of these moments, but for the teenager, this is reality. On Wednesday, she will play fellow first-time Slam quarterfinalist and No. 10 seeded Karolina Pliskova for a spot in the final four.

“I told myself like last night, ‘When you fall asleep and get up in the morning it’s going to be better, I’m going to settle in,’” Konjuh said. “But I’m not feeling any different from yesterday and I’m just trying to get better each day and I’m not going to stop right now.”

 

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[indiana]

GB/2............just a great thread...........thank you............good day for tennis...............indy

 

[Greenbacks]

GB/2............just a great thread...........thank you............good day for tennis...............indy

Thank you indy.....You`re the best.....Have a great day!

 

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I hope you didn`t blink.....Karolina takes out the kid in 57 minutes without a problem.....6-2...6-2

 

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[Greenbacks]

Kei Nishikori: Japan's rising son.

The smallest and least heralded Top 10 tennis player in the world grew up in Shimane Prefecture, a region tucked between the Sea of Japan and the Chogoku Mountain Range, on the northern edge of western Japan.
It is known for its stunning beauty and its abundance of shrines, and for being the ancestral meeting place of Japanese gods. “The hidden soul of Japan” is what Shimane likes to call itself, and its most famous sporting export, Kei Nishikori, certainly wouldn’t mind finding a way to win three more US Open matches and make Shimane a little more famous.
“It’s going to be a big goal for me to get this title,” Nishikori said.

Nishikori, 26, is the No. 6 seed at the US Open, and if you’ve somehow managed to overlook him through the first ten days of of the Open, you are a member of no small club. Nishikori was more workmanlike than dazzling in his first three victories, all achieved in four sets, before putting on his returning shoes and ramping up every aspect of his game in the round of 16, when he defused the Crotian ace machine, No. 21 Ivo Karlovic, in a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 victory that put him in the final eight Wednesday. The marvel in the match wasn’t merely that Nishikori made a total of seven unforced errors – yes, seven, and no, that is not a misprint – but that Nishikori actually was the better server. True, Karlovic fired 21 more aces to run his four-round total to 120, but Nishikori managed to break him twice and had a higher winning percentage of first-service points (84 percent, 47 of 56) than did Karlovic (77 percent, 49 of 64).

“Ivo is always a tough opponent, especially here with the quick surface and the high bounce,” Nishikori said. “It’s never easy to return those kinds of serves.
“I just focus on my tennis. Today I return really well. That for sure helped my game today. Able to get the break, you know, first and second set early. So that makes me a little more [relaxed]."
Having left Shimane at 14 for Bradenton, Fla., where he still trains at Nick Bolletieri’s Tennis Academy, Nishikori has spent almost half his life in the States, and if he’s not as American as McDonald’s, well, he’s getting close. Indeed, Nishikori had the best Grand Slam run of his life right here at the home of America’s Grand Slam. That came two years ago, when Nishikori stunned Novak Djokovic in a four-set semifinal triumph, before falling to Croatia’s Marin Cilic in the title match.

Nishikori became the first Asian man to compete for a Slam championship, and his Flushing Meadows associations remain overwhelmingly positive – no matter that Djokovic has won all nine of their meetings since.
“For sure, I have great memory [of the run in 2014],” Nishikori said.
With a 50-14 record for the year (33-9 on hard courts), Nishikori comes to the quarterfinals after a superb summer. He was the runner-up in Toronto to Djokovic last month, and advanced to the third round in Cincinnati, before losing to Bernard Tomic, but his biggest summer highlight was defeating Rafael Nadal to capture the Olympic bronze medal in Rio.

Not so much fun was getting drubbed by Andy Murray, the eventual gold medalist, in Rio, the man who Nisikori will again see across the net in the quarterfinals in Flushing Meadows. Still, Nishikori insists his takeaway from Brazil was entirely positive.
“I had a great experience,” Nishikori said. “I mean, for us, I think Grand Slam is still the biggest dream, but, you know, I think winning the medal is something special. Especially the last match against Rafa. I had a lot of confidence from that match. I got a lot of good things from Olympics.”
Like the overwhelming majority of his tennis brethren these days, Nishikori doesn’t often stray far from the baseline, though he is more comfortable than most on both wings, with a backhand that is potent enough that he feels no need to run around it.

His quick hands and feet help fortify the strong return game he put on display against Karlovic. Nishikori believes that improved patience and a sharper tactical sense about point construction make him a much better player than he was when he lost two years in the final to Cilic.
Before he takes another swing at Murray Wednesday, Nishikori will have his customary pre-match meal – white rice – and then make his way through the underbelly of Ashe to the biggest tennis court on the planet. A victory would put Kei Nishikori a step closer to his goal, and might even get him some increased global attention, far beyond the temples and mountains of Shimane Prefecture.

 

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No straight set winner in this one.....Kei and Andy knotted up at 1-1 under the roof.

 

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Kei is a bad mother.....Watch your mouth.....No upset.....1-6...6-4...4-6...6-1...7-5

 

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It`s time Girl......Bring it......Good luck!