Kei Nishikori has advanced to the US Open semi-finals with a grinding five-set victory over Marin Cilic, gaining a small measure of revenge on the man who crushed his grand slam dream in the 2014 final.
The 2-6 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 4-6-6-4 victory also completed a historic day for Japanese tennis with Naomi Osaka routing Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko as the pair became the first Japanese man and woman to reach the semi-finals of the same grand slam.
“It’s good to have, you know, home support outside of Japan,” Nishikori said.
“Yeah, it’s great news we’re both in the semis.”
Nishikori will play two-times champion Novak Djokovic or unseeded Australian John Millman for a spot in Sunday’s final.
It has already been a successful return to Flushing Meadows for Nishikori who missed the event last year with a wrist injury.
But after reaching the final in Monte Carlo, the French Open fourth round and the Wimbledon quarter-finals, Nishikori believes an elusive first grand slam is within reach.
“Especially after coming from injury,” he said.
“I think I’m enjoying this challenge.”
Initially on Wednesday, it looked like the match might follow a similar storyline from four years ago when seventh-seeded Cilic took the opening set from a sluggish Nishikori.
The 21st seed sputtered along until earning his first break chance at 2-4 in the second set and was able to convert to get back on serve.
As Nishikori began to find his rhythm Cilic started to misfire and the Japanese collected a second consecutive break on a double fault to surge in front 5-4 before holding serve to level the match.
The tide continued to turn in the third as Nishikori chipped away at the faltering Cilic with a third successive break.
Cilic did level at 4-4 but his erratic play continued as Nishikori stole the set with the help of two double faults in the tiebreaker.
The Croat rebounded to take the fourth and the rollercoaster ride continued into the fifth with Nishikori grabbing the advantage with a break at 3-1 and taking Cilic’s serve again with a blistering return winner to close out victory.
“With a great quality player like Kei, he also had his chances, and he converted. So it came down to a couple points,” Cilic said.