Murray is expectedly overcoming and surviving the challenges, although he does look off in certain parts. His 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over Karen Khachanov on Monday was by far, his most comfortable victory in the tournament, which doesn’t sound good since he’s the top man in the sport.
In each of his four matches at the Roland Garros this year, Murray was either outscored in aces or winners. It isn’t given much thought since he advanced anyway, but it makes one think if he will still be able to pull it together at this stage of the open, where his shaky play will now be pitted against a co-elite player.
As for the confusing trend: he’s 9-2 against Kei Nishikori all-time, but only 8-4 on clay this season, three of which came from guys outside the top 10.
World no. 9 Nishikori will be coming off a heck of a performance. He got smacked in the first game of the first set in his Round of 16s match versus Fernando Vasco, 6-0, but was able to storm back impressively. Along with winning the next three sets, he also successfully returned the favor in the final frame, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-0.
In this next matchup, we should see another entertaining outing from Nishikori. He may only have two wins in 11 meetings, but he has shown that he can edge out the future Hall-of-Famer in various situations – one of the wins was a comeback from a 6-1 loss in the first set, while the other was a straight sets, 6-3, 6-4 victory.
The 27-year-old is 40-11 on clay in the last three years, along with two clay court ATP titles.
Writer’s Prediction
The two battle for four sets, with Nishikori (+300) scoring the upset.
