For a guy who has had to battle through his fair share of injuries for much of his young career, Kei Nishikori has turned into a marathon man of sorts at the 2014 US Open. After disposing of Milos Raonic in the fourth round of what was a four hour and nineteen minute battle, the No. 10 seed did one better on Wednesday afternoon against No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka.
While it may not have taken him quite as long to get the job done, though it came awfully close at four hours and fifteen minutes, his five set 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(7), 6-7(6), 6-4 victory over the defending Australian Open champ was arguably even more impressive. When one takes the level of competition and the fact Nishikori got off to a less than stellar start, it is frankly impossible to argue against that point.
There is no question the twenty-four year old was still feeling the effects of his match against the hard-serving Canadian but to his credit, he managed to right the ship after a shaky opening set and played his Swiss counterpart to what was arguably a standstill the rest of the way.
Be it a blistering Wawrinka ground stroke or Nishikori finding ways to pull off shots he had no business making, the level of tennis was fantastic. Both men left everything they had out on that court but for the second consecutive outing, it was the kid from Japan who played better when the chips were down.
More often than not, winning or losing a match will come down to a handful of crucial points and despite being worn down physically and basically running on fumes, Nishikori was clearly the better of the two when it mattered most. A far cry from what we saw from a pair of his contemporaries in Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov, especially the latter, during their fourth round exists.
While the final set may not have been prettiest of sets to look, Nishikori found a way to hold his serve and pounce when an opportunity came his way. That chance came when Wawrinka coughed up an ill-timed double fault at 4-5 to hand his opponent double match point and two points later, they were shaking hands instead of heading towards what looked to be a certain tiebreaker.
Nishikori will now take on the winner of the Novak Djokovic - Andy Murray quarterfinal matchup during what will most likely be the evening session at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday night. That appearance will not only be his first-ever career Grand Slam semi-final but it also marks the first time a Japanese born player has accomplished the feat since Ichiya Kumagae did it back in 1918.
Not too shabby from a guy who some were starting to wonder if he still deserved to be included in that “Next Wave” of young players with the aforementioned Dimitrov, Raonic and Nick Kyrgios. Considering all three of those men are no longer alive at the 2014 US Open and the fact Nishikori has already taken out the four and six players in the world rankings to get to where he is, the answer to that question seems rather obvious.
