Top seed Kei Nishikori kept his bid for a third straight ATP Memphis title alive on Friday with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 quarter-final win over Austin Krajicek.
The 25-year-old Japanese star, ranked fifth in the world, needed 2 hours, 10 minutes to subdue the US qualifier, ranked 156th.
Nishikori seized control in the third set with an early break for a 2-0 lead.
Krajicek broke to level the set at 4-4, but Nishikori immediately broke back to avert the danger and served out the match.
“Obviously I didn’t play my best tennis, but I won today, that’s meaningful,” Nishikori said. “I think it’s a very good win today, because he was playing good tennis... He was hitting a lot of aces that I wasn’t really expecting.”
Nishikori, who saved eight of the 10 break points he faced, next faces the US’ Sam Querrey, who toppled third-seeded compatriot John Isner 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/2).
Krajicek said Nishikori played better on the important points.
“Kei, obviously he’s one of the best players in the sport, so he comes up with it when it matters,” said the 24-year-old American, who saved two match points in a first-round win over Mikhail Kukushkin then downed fifth-seeded Ivo Karlovic in the second. “I gave myself an opportunity and thought I played well. It was a really fun match and the atmosphere was great — I enjoyed myself.”
Second-seeded South African Kevin Anderson also advanced, downing the US’ Steve Johnson 6-4, 6-4.
Anderson fired 16 aces and saved all three break points he faced in the 65-minute contest. He is to take on American Donald Young, who defeated Australian Bernard Tomic 7-6 (10/8), 4-6, 7-5.
World Tennis
AP, ROTTERDAM, Netherlands
Gilles Simon secured his first win over top-seeded Andy Murray in nearly eight years to set up a semi-final with defending champion Tomas Berdych at the World Tennis Tournament on Friday.
In the other semi-final, Milos Raonic of Canada faces 2013 Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland after both won their quarter-finals.
Simon saved four of the six break points he faced, and capitalized on Murray’s unforced errors to win 6-4, 6-2 on his third match point.
Earlier, Berdych escaped unscathed from a heavy fall and romped to a 6-1, 6-4 victory over another Frenchman, Gael Monfils. The Czech hit a flurry of baseline winners and served extremely well, winning 88 percent of the points on his first serve.
The third-seeded Berdych needed just 23 minutes to seal the first set, and broke for 2-1 in the second soon after calling the trainer to have his left wrist checked following his tumble when chasing a drop shot.
“It was a nasty fall,” Berdych said. “I’ll have to see how it evolves, but hopefully I will fully recover for the semi-finals.”
Monfils attended to the Czech after he slipped, stepping across the net to help him back on his feet and picking up his racket.
Meanwhile, big-serving Raonic was below-par, hitting only six aces in a gritty 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win against Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky, with both players dropping serve twice.
Wawrinka edged Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, with both players serving nine aces.
Wawrinka leads Raonic 3-0 in career head-to-heads, while Simon leads Berdych 6-3 — having won four of their past five meetings.
BRAZIL OPEN
Reuters
In the quarter-finals at the Brazil Open in Sao Paulo on Friday, Brazil’s Joao Souza beat Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Italian Luca Vanni beat Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4); Colombian Santiago Giraldo beat Fabio Fognini of Italy 7-6 (7/4), 7-5; and Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas beat Nicolas Almagro of Spain 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 6-2.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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