Nishikori Stops Del Potro’s DC Streak At 2am; Roanic, Zverev Advance But Thiem, Dimitrov Out

After another day of rain delays, Kei Nishikori needed to wait until 2am to eliminate Juan Martin del Potro from the Washington with a 6-4, 7-5 victory. In the battle of former champions, Nishikori led with a break in the second before the Argentine turned it around and actually held three set points.

Nishikori in the end prevailed stopping del Potro’s 15-match win streak at the event.

“It was a very tight game and we played great tennis in the second set,” said Nishikori. “I was dominating my service games and very happy with my tennis today.”

Alexander Zverev and Milos Raonic were also winners, beating Tennys Sandgren and Marcos Baghdatis, respectively.

Top seed Dominic Thiem had a match point but fell in the end to Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-6(7). Thiem falls to 0-6 against the big South African.

“It feels great. I’ve worked really hard and committed myself to playing the kind of tennis I want to play. I could do that on the practice court and sometimes struggled to bring it to the match court, but now I’m succeeding with that more often,” said Anderson. “Obviously each day presents a new challenge, but I look forward to each one and I’m much more confident overall.”

Daniil Medveved knocked out Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-2 and Tommy Paul stunned Gilles Muller in 3.

Among the highlights on Friday quarterfinal day, Raonic meets Jack Sock and youngsters Zverev and Medvedev collide.

FRIDAY WASHINGTON QUARTERFINALS
STADIUM start 2:00 pm
ATP – [3] [WC] M. Raonic (CAN) vs [8] J. Sock (USA)

Not Before 4:00 pm
ATP – [15] K. Anderson (RSA) vs [Q] Y. Bhambri (IND)

Not Before 7:00 pm
ATP – [5] A. Zverev (GER) vs D. Medvedev (RUS)
ATP – [WC] T. Paul (USA) vs [2] [WC] K. Nishikori (JPN)

GRANDSTAND 1 start 2:00 pm
WTA – [1] [WC] S. Halep (ROU) vs [7] E. Makarova (RUS)

Not Before 3:30 pm
WTA – [6] M. Niculescu (ROU) vs [4] J. Goerges (GER)
WTA – S. Lisicki (GER) vs [5] O. Dodin (FRA)
WTA – A. Petkovic (GER) vs [WC] B. Andreescu (CAN)