Kei Nishikori's hopes of reaching the semifinals at all four of tennis' Grand Slam tournaments this year ended on Wednesday, when he was beaten in straight sets in the Australian Open quarterfinals by Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka.
Nishikori was blown out of the first set and only slowly worked his way back into the match before dropping the third-set tiebreak in a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) defeat. In their previous match, Nishikori had beaten Wawrinka in five grueling sets to advance to the U.S. Open semifinals in September.
"His serve was clearly superior. I wasn't able to read it," Nishikori said when asked to compare Wednesday's match with their U.S. Open quarterfinal.