Andy Murray

Nice one Muzza.
Completely blitzed Dimitrov in straight sets 6-1 6-2 6-2.
Nishikori next.
Then the potentially tough Del Potro - Djokovic challenge.

Best display of the tournament from Murray tonight.
Very, very impressive.

Del Potro will be happier that he got extra rest time, thought I have a sneaking suspicion that Djokovic may not have it all his own way against Tsonga if Tsonga can turn up his power game to test Djokovic's wrist

There is of course the possibility it may not be Del Potro making the semi final.
He is, after all playing a former slam winner Stan Wawrinka in the last eight and he is no mug .

The winner of the Djokovic v Tsonga match tonight will play Gael Monfils in the semis after he beat Lucas Pouille in straight sets.

Djokovic got another easy win.

Oh well.
In the end it was all irrelevant as an irritable and agitated and most probably tired Murray fell short against Nishikori over five sets 1-6 6-4 4-6 6-1 7-5. His heavy recent schedule has possibly caught up with him. The one silver lining is that he does have a few more days off to prepare for the Davis Cup semi final against Argentina.
A disappointing defeat but not the end of the world.

The Davis Cup and The ATP Tour Finals in London very much targets for Murray in the remainder of 2016.

^ not sure tiredness due to to a heavy schedule was a factor there. Murray had 4 weeks off prior to the Olympics and a week off before the US Open. This obviously takes nothing away from his recent achievements but given how tough it has been for him to win majors in the era of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic this feels like a massive opportunity missed for Murray to take advantage of being the in-form player and win two in a year.

^ May have to agree to disagree on this one . I just think he expended a lot of emotional and physical energy in defending his Olympic title before swiftly moving on to Cincinatti where he made the final.
I think it was something like 14 matches in 15 days followed by just over a week off followed by a series of best of five set matches.
That is tough at the very highest level and even had he won against Nishikori the remaining opposition would have been even more difficult and the matches even more brutal.
Missed opportunity? Maybe but it would have been unbelievably tough to have now faced Del Potro/Wawrinka and then possibly Djokovic after all the matches he would have played in a relatively short time. The pundits have made mention of it and I was a little concerned about it also.
But he will have more opportunities I'm sure.

i think he would rather have won the US open than an Olympic gold medal, can't say im surprised he lost tbh

(08-09-2016 00:21 )Joey 27 Wrote:  i think he would rather have won the US open than an Olympic gold medal, can't say im surprised he lost tbh

We will have to ask him?
Not surprised he got annoyed at that bloody gong noise going off a few times. WTF.

Well, that was very unexpected. Murray just cost me £10 on a tennis accumulator.

Clearly the rain interruptions then the sound system malfunction fucked up his momentum. I don't think tiredness was a factor - I think it was more down to the fact that Murray hadn't been really tested in the matches leading up to this and wasn't fully prepared, wasn't match hardened to the maximum for an opponent of Nishikori's calibre.

Dimitrov should have provided a test in the fourth round but Murray swept him aside far too easily for me. The Bulgarian didn't turn up and wasn't interested in digging in to make it competitive. Nishikori is a far more competitive player than Dimitrov, not to mention a lot more mentally sound. Plus, Murray's actually got a poor record by his standards in the last four years since he won here in New York. No better than the quarter finals so maybe that should have been a warning factor. Even so I would have expected Britain's finest to prevail - but clearly the Japanese had other ideas.

I reckon Del Potro to beat Wawrinka, then to make the final. Monfils has some real talent, but the safe money for me is on a Djokovic - Del Potro epic in Sunday's finale.