Kei Nishikori produced yet another upsets at the Miami Masters on Wednesday night after the Japanese number one upset world number five Roger Federer 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the quarterfinals. The previous day, Nishikori eliminated world number four David Ferrer after saving four match points.
“Feeling good, of course, to beat Roger,” said Nishikori. “I thought I really played well, especially in the third. I was hitting both deep and striking well. Everything was going well. There [were a] couple of tough moments, but I was fighting through and happy to win today.”
Federer only had good words to say about his opponent.
“I think Kei does really well controlling the ball,” said Federer. “He has great technique, especially on the backhand, very simple, very short back swings, so he does a really nice job of having good timing.
“I predict he’s going to be Top 10 in a short while,” Federer added.
“I could never really get my service games going,” admitted Federer. “On the return, as the match went on, I think it was that Kei started to serve a bit better, which made it more difficult.”
Nishikori will next face Novak Djokovic after the latter eliminated defending champion Andy Murray earlier in the day.
“He’s playing well, no doubt,” said Nishikori about the world number 2. “I played him a long time ago, maybe three or four years ago in Basel, and I beat him before, so hopefully I can play good like today.”
