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Marin Cilic is through to the Wimbledon quarter-final for a third straight year after a hampered Kei Nishikori retired while trailing 1-6, 1-5.
The Croat wrapped up this rematch of the 2014 US Open final in 43 minutes as the Japanese No.5 seed succumbed to an injury, having arrived at The Championships recovering from a rib problem that cut short his grass court preparations in Halle.
"It's been not recovering well these two weeks,” admitted Nishikori, who withdrew from the second round at The Championships in 2015 with a calf injury. “After the third round, it's got worse. Today I was hoping to get better, but it was too much pain on the court, so I couldn't really compete today.”
Nishikori, who has never reached the quarter-final at The Championships, could not serve faster than 98mph and won just two points in the first five games of the match, as Cilic ran away with the opening set in just 16 minutes.
Undeterred, Nishikori did what he could to put the injury of out his mind and even broke back to level up at 1-1 early in the second set, moving with greater freedom along the baseline, even if his strokes lacked their usual venom.
Cilic went on to win the next three games before Nishikori called for the trainer, taking a painkiller while coaches Michael Chang and Dante Bottini urged him to quit. The world No.6 battled on for another game before finally heeding their advice, sending Cilic through to a quarter-final with Roger Federer, who he beat in the semi-final ahead of his US Open triumph two years ago.
“That was definitely one of my best matches in the career,” No.9 seed Cilic said. “You know, we haven't played since then. Since I'm working with Goran we made three quarters in a row, which I have never done before. Definitely, you know, just a sign that we are working well.
“This year I feel that I'm playing the best out of all these years in the past, and, it's another good, positive sign. Definitely here the Wimbledon courts are suiting for my game and I like to play here.”
Sam Querrey backed up his victory over defending champion Novak Djokovic with a 6-4 7-6(5) 6-4 victory over Nicolas Mahut to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final.
Fears that the American might suffer a dip in form after the emotional high of beating the No.1 seed were quickly quashed as Querrey dropped just two points on his first serve in the entire match against the Frenchman to set up a quarter-final showdown with Milos Raonic.
“For me, the win was really exciting,” Querrey said of beating Djokovic. “But my match today, I was playing for my first quarter-final, so I was playing for something else. There was still something exciting, kind of like another carrot on the line for me to play for. I really just wanted to focus in and play the best I can. Today everything really clicked.”
Querrey isn’t the only first-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist at The Championships. French No.32 seed Lucas Pouille, who had won just two Grand Slam matches in the past four seasons, collected his fourth straight win at The Championships in marathon fashion, beating Bernard Tomic 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 10-8 in two hours, 55 minutes.
“Before the tournament, it was to win one match on grass,” Pouille said of his goals ahead of Wimbledon. “Now, of course, I'm very happy, very emotional with the win today. I’ll try to recover as good as possible for Wednesday. It will be my first day off tomorrow, so it will be good.”
Pouille will face either 2010 finalist Tomas Berdych or fellow Czech Jiri Vesely, whose fourth-round showdown was suspended after 22-year-old Vesely saved five match points before clinching a dramatic twilight tie-break to level up at two sets all, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(8), 7-6(9).
