Kei Nishikori rallied to outlast Marin Cilic on Wednesday at the U.S. Open, giving Japan a men's and women's semifinalist at the same Grand Slam for the first time in the professional era.
In the match before Nishikori's, Naomi Osaka moved into her first Grand Slam semifinal by routing Lesia Tsurenko 6-1, 6-1 on Wednesday in the U.S. Open quarter-finals.
Only once in the professional era that began in 1968 had Japan had a men's and women's player in the quarter-finals at the same tournament. That was at Wimbledon in 1995, and both Shuzo Matsuoka and Kimiko Date lost in that round.
The seventh-seeded Cilic won the 2014 final in straight sets for his only career major title. Nishikori said this week that he was nervous once that match began, but this one was nothing like that day.
Instead, it resembled their 2010 second-round match in Flushing Meadows, when Nishikori rallied to win in five sets in 4:59, the fifth-longest men's singles match by time in U.S. Open history.
Continues strong rebound
The No. 21 seed continued his strong season after returning from a wrist injury that forced him to miss the U.S. Open last year and will play either No. 6 seed Novak Djokovic or unseeded John Millman on Friday.
"I wish I don't go to five sets every time," Nishikori said.
Osaka had it much easier, continuing what's been a largely dominant run through the draw by winning in just 57 minutes, the third time in her five matches she didn't even have to play an hour.
The No. 20 seed moved from Japan to New York at age 3, and her deepest major run is coming at the same tournament she first visited as a child.
Naomi Osaka is the first Japanese woman to make the semifinals a Grand Slam event in 22 years. She defeated Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko 6-1, 6-1 on Wednesday. (Jason DeCrow/Associated Press)
"Well, it definitely means a lot for me, and I always thought if I were to win a Grand Slam, the first one I'd want to win is the US Open, because I have grown up here and, like, then my grandparents can come and watch," she said. "I think it would be really cool."
She raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set and then 4-0 in the second against the shaky Tsurenko, who finished with more unforced errors than points in her first major quarter-final.
'Freaking out'
Osaka will face either 14th-seeded Madison Keys or No. 30 Carla Suarez Navarro in the first major semifinal appearance for a Japanese woman since Date reached the final four at Wimbledon in 1996.
The 20-year-old said she was nervous, claiming to be "freaking out inside" — though it certainly never showed.
"Just like my entire body was shaking, so I'm really glad I was able to play well today," she said.
She won 59 points to just 28 for the unseeded Ukrainian, who knocked off No. 2 seed Caroline Wozniacki in the second round.
Osaka had consecutive 50-minute matches earlier in the tournament, including a 6-0, 6-0 thrashing of Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the third round.
It was another hot afternoon Wednesday, with temperatures in the high-80s (30s Celsius) but feeling some 10 degrees hotter with the humidity.
