Andy Murray downs Kei Nishikori in an epic at World Tour Finals

It was a similar atmosphere like Flushing meadows, when Andy Murray met Kei Nishikori in the quarters of U.S. Open earlier year in September.
With such noise in the court, the match was gripping and he also had a scare.
Andy Murray had a tough match against Kei Nishikori at the World Tour Finals yesterday.
Had he lost the match yesterday, he was out of the race to finish the year as No. 1.
Andy Murray's meltdown at Arthur Ashe this year in a five-set defeat to Nishikori could have been repeated at the World Tour Finals yesterday after he lost the first set in an 18 minutes tie breaker, but he regrouped himself to overcome the scare.

After Novak Djokovic won against Milas Raonic on Day 3, Murray had to win this match.
However he flirted with danger here, got distracted many a times, getting agitated just like he did at Flushing Meadows, remonstrating with himself and shouting at his box.

He won the match 6-7(9), 6-4, 6-4.

After the match he said in the press conference, "I didn't feel like I was hitting the ball as well as I would have liked. He was dictating so many points. For me it was frustrating. Didn't matter whether I tried to hit the ball a bit harder, adjusted my position on the court, nothing was making me hit the ball cleaner."

"As the match went on, I was getting kind of frustrated, then becoming like sarcastic with myself that I couldn't seem to have hit the ball as clean as I wanted to. Yeah, I don't often do that, but today I was definitely being more sarcastic towards myself than usual."

His frustrations almost made him pay when he failed to take 2 set-points at 5-4 in the second set, having already been broken once. He then needed four games to put the game to bed after leading 5-1 in the decider.

"There was nothing in it.", Murray admitted. "He could have won in two sets, for sure. He was dictating many points. He had a number of chances."

Andy Murray is still not guaranteed of his semi-final place as Stan Wawrinka bounced back from his opening defeat to down Marin Cilic 7-6(3), 7-6(3) in Wednesday's evening session at London's O2 Arena.

Situation has got a bit trickier, if Wawrinka beats Murray in two sets and Nishikori wins against Cilic, then Murray will be out of the tournament and Djokovic will finish year as No. 1. But if Cilic gets his first win here then Murray and Wawrinka enter the semi-final regardless.

Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori match lasted for 3 hours 20 minutes, officially the longest in Tour Finals. 

Murray must have realised this fact that it's one thing to reach the top but it takes more to stay there and to stay at top he must match or outdo Novak Djokovic's performance. It may come to a final showdown between the top two on Sunday.

"I think for the tournament and for everyone interested in tennis that would probably be the perfect way to finish the year," admitted Murray.


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