Kei Nishikori and Novak Djokovic; after both won their quarterfinal matches on Wednesday are set to face each other for qualifying to finals of US Open.
Nishikori made it to the semi finals after defeating Cilic with a score board of 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 and 6-4. Djokovic made it to finals after defeating John Millman who defeated Rodger Federer previously.
For Nishikori, this was kind of a sweet revenge who outlasted Cilic in this match after he was previously defeated by Croatian player four years ago in the US open finals.
This time it was Nishikori’s turn to shine and to grab hold of victory from Cilic. Cilic in their last bout was able to win with straight sets was pushed to his limits in this match. With this win, Nishikori holds nine wins over Cilic in their past 15 meetings.
Nishikori was not able to participate in the last year’s US Open tournament as he suffered from a wrist injury. This year Nishikori and Osaka of the same country both made it to the US Open semi finals; becoming the first Japanese man and woman to make it to the semi finals together in a Grand Slam event.
Djokovic stuck to his plan for this match but Humidity which appears to be the regular feature of this year’s tournament both tested him and Millman to their limits.
The atmosphere was so humid and Millman was so drenched in sweat that at one point he told Umpire that I am unable to put balls in my pockets as they are drenched in sweat.
Djokovic told media that, “he and I, we were both struggling. We were changing a lot of t-shirts and shorts, just trying struggling to hold on in there and to find a way for winning the match. The conditions were not favorable for both players.”
