US Open: Kei Nishikori beats Philipp Kohlschreiber to reach quarter-finals as smooth comeback continues

Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka are not the only leading men who have been making their comebacks this year following lengthy absences through injury. Kei Nishikori, who was world No 4 as recently as 18 months ago, joined his fellow top 10 members on the sidelines in the latter part of last year because of an injury to his right wrist.

His return has not been as spectacular as Djokovic’s, but he has enjoyed more consistent success than Murray or Wawrinka. The 28-year-old Japanese has been making good progress through the year and reached the quarter-finals of the US Open here on Monday thanks to a 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 victory over Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Nishikori, who has trained in Florida for most of his professional career, loves playing here. He reached the final four years ago before losing to Marin Cilic.

“I have good memories here,” Nishikori said. “It's very comfortable playing the US Open. I always enjoy playing here. I feel like I have great support here. Many Japanese come. The fans are very loud and that helps me.”

With the temperature forecast to climb to 32C and humidity expected to be at more than 60 per cent, tournament organisers decided before the start of play to implement their new heat rule, which was used for the first time on three different days last week. Under the rule, the men can take a 10-minute break between the third and fourth sets and the women can do the same between the second and third sets.

Kohlschreiber, who had beaten his fellow German Alexander Zverev in the previous round, was up against it from the moment he dropped serve in the second game of the match thanks to a double fault and an unforced forehand error on the last two points.

It was not until Nishikori led 5-3 in the third set that Kohlschreiber came up with any effective resistance. He levelled at 5-5, only to drop serve again in the following game. This time Nishikori served out for the match, completing his victory in two and a quarter hours.

Nishikori finished his 2017 season in August and did not return to competition until after the Australian Open. He won a Challenger title in Dallas in his second comeback tournament, beat Zverev and Cilic en route to the final in Monte Carlo, made the fourth round of the French Open and enjoyed his best run at Wimbledon before losing to Djokovic in the quarter-finals.

The Japanese has won nine of his 11 titles on hard courts, though his results leading into the US Open had dipped slightly. He arrived here having won only three matches in the three tournaments he had played on this summer’s north American hard court circuit.

In the quarter-finals on Wednesday Nishikori will face the winner of today’s later meeting between Cilic and David Goffin.