For once he was not the player with the biggest press presence from his home country awaiting the result, but Andy Murray is into the semifinals of his fifth consecutive Grand Slam after a 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Kei Nishikori, ending the run of the first Japanese man into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in the Open Era.
The two players could not have taken more different routes to this encounter, and ultimately that may have been the greatest factor in determining the scoreline, if not the result. Nishikori had played two five-setters in reaching this point, the last against sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in scorching heat two days ago, and the physical toll incurred was brutally brought home to him by Murray from the very beginning of the match. As Nishikori struggled to hold serve, the pair played a 43-stroke rally which Murray controlled like a puppet-master, yanking his opponent from side to side with his backhand before finally putting Nishikori out of his misery—and taking the initial break—with a backhand winner. Nishikori looked exhausted; Murray was set to cruise.
The one-sided scoreline, however, masked a multitude of draining mini-battles, as Nishikori dug in and Murray was unable to totally assert himself. Murray’s fourth-round match was cut short after just 45 minutes when Mikhail Kukushkin retired, and the British No. 1 appeared to be searching for his rhythm today—and never quite able to find it. After the aforementioned rally, Nishikori appeared determined to play as aggressive as possible and shorten the points, and he did it well, attacking the net to produce what Murray afterwards referred to as ‘the fun points’—all-court exchanges of volleys, drop-shots, lobs, and scrambling defense that underlined the great tennis Nishikori can produce when not sidelined by injury, as he has been all too often during his young career.
It was the meat-and-potatoes points of the match which were mostly won by Murray, who dictated consistently enough from inside the baseline despite an abysmal first serve percentage (44 percent for the match). It would take the patience of a saint to trace the byzantine twists in momentum, but the fact that Nishikori only converted two out of the 10 break points he earned was testament to the fact that Murray played the big points well. Verbal as always, Murray confined himself to positive reinforcement through the match; after gritting out the second set he told himself, “every point now.” It was enough to take the third set commandingly.
The crowd, many wearing kimonos or with Japanese flags painted on their faces, applauded Nishikori’s efforts generously, but it is Murray who moves on to the semifinals to face Novak Djokovic or David Ferrer. It was not his best performance, and the scrappy quality of it must be of some concern at a time in when his rivals are rounding into their most competitive and intense form. But it was more than good enough.
—Hannah Wilks
