Kei Nishikori reaches first Wimbledon quarter-final, ends 23-year Japanese wait
LONDON: Kei Nishikori overcame an arm injury to reach his first Wimbledon quarter-final on Monday with a gritty 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (12/10), 6-1 win over Latvian qualifier Ernests Gulbis.
The 28-year-old Nishikori is the first Japanese man to reach the quarter-finals at Wimbledon since Shuzo Matsuoka in 1995.
His reward is a last-eight match-up against either three-time champion Novak Djokovic or unseeded Karen Khachanov of Russia.
Nishikori needed lengthy treatment and a medical timeout on a right arm injury in the first set and had to save set points in the third.
Gulbis, ranked 130 and who came through qualifying, had shocked fourth-seeded German Alexander Zverev in the third round.
But having played three successive five-set matches in the main draw to get this far, he ran out of steam.
A nasty fall, which required a medical time out on his left knee, doomed Gulbis's bid to become just the sixth qualifier to reach the last-eight at Wimbledon.