Time on Murray’s side after sluggish first set
A TIME violation helped kick Andy Murray into gear as he defeated Kei Nishikori to set up a French Open semi-final rematch against Stan Wawrinka.
Murray was completely outplayed in the opening set by Nishikori but fought back to win 2-6 6-1 7-6 (7/0) 6-1 on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Murray said: “He was dictating all the points in the first set, making me move a lot. It was quite windy today and that made it difficult. Once I found a bit of rhythm I started to control things a little bit more.”
The turning point came at deuce in the third game of the second set, when Murray caught his ball toss and was sanctioned by umpire Carlos Ramos for taking too long between serves.
Having already received a time violation early in the opening set, Murray was penalised a first serve. He argued his case with Ramos to no avail but the Scot is never more dangerous than when he has a sense of grievance.
After a shaky second serve was dumped long by Nishikori, the eighth seed went completely off the boil and did not win another game in the set.
This was a strange match, with both men rarely playing well at the same time and Nishikori’s level in particular going up and down like a yo-yo.
Murray is likely to have his up his level to beat third seed Wawrinka, who is yet to drop a set.
A resigned Novak Djokovic was at a loss to explain the shocking ending to his title defence.
Twelve months after becoming the first man in 47 years to hold all four grand slam titles, Djokovic exited Roland Garros with a 7-6 (7/5) 6-3 6-0 loss to Dominic Thiem.
Most stunning was the manner of his collapse in the third set. Djokovic won just eight points and appeared to give up.
It was the first time Djokovic had lost a set 6-0 at a grand slam since 2005 and means he will drop out of the world’s top two for the first time in six years. The 30-year-old said: “I don’t expect myself to play as bad as I played in the third. I don’t visualise that ever. “It was not there for me today, especially in the second part of the match. I was just unable to hit the ball well and made many unforced errors.” His final tally of unforced errors was 35, with 18 winners compared to 38 for his opponent, who now faces nine-time champion Rafael Nadal, who moved into a tenth French Open semi-final after Pablo Carreno Busta retired with an abdominal problem trailing 6-2 2-0.
Simona Halep mounted a remarkable recovery from a set and 5-1 down against Elina Svitolina to reach the women’s singles semi-finals.
Title favourite Halep was being overpowered and looked set for a disappointing exit before turning things around to win 3-6 7-6 (8/6) 6-0.
She saved a match point in the second-set tie-break and then raced through the third to set up a last-four clash with second seed Karolina Pliskova, who beat Caroline Garcia 7-6 (7/3) 6-4.