Andy’s hitting form just in time for Nishikori test
Andy Murray faces Japan’s Kei Nishikori today in the French Open quarter-finals looking a far different player than he was 10 days ago.
On Monday, he produced a clinical performance to see off Russian Karen Khachanov to reach his seventh French Open quarter-final, winning 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to claim his 650th Tour-level victory in two hours and four minutes.
The victory followed his equally impressive third-round straight sets win over Argentine’s Juan Martin del Potro on Saturday.
His struggles with form and fitness leading into Roland Garros has had his many fans worried but they — like him — will have perked up as he looks to win his fourth Grand Slam title.
Nishikori (right) is the type of player who can rise to the occasion — he beat Murray in the US Open quarter-final last year. That win, however, is only one of two victories he can claim over Murray — and of the Dunblane ace’s eight victories, six of them have come in straight sets. The winner of the Murray-Nishikori match will face either Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) or Marin Cilic (Croatia) in the semi-final. The other two quarter-finals were due on court yesterday, with Rafael Nadal — going for his 10th French Open win — meeting his fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta and Austria’s Dominic Thiem against Serb Novak Djokovic. Jamie Murray’s French Open dreams are over for another year after he and Brazil’s Bruno Soares lost in the quarter-final to the unseeded pairing of Mexico’s Santiago Gonzalez and USA’s Donald Young, going down 3-6 7-6 7-6.