Nishikori advances to US Open semis

NEW YORK (AP):

Kei Nishikori outlasted Marin Cilic in a rematch of the 2014 US Open final, moving into the semifinals with a 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-4 victory.

The No. 21 seed gave Japan a men's and women's semifinalist at the same Grand Slam tournament for the first time in the professional era. Naomi Osaka won her quarterfinal in the match that preceded Nishikori's.

Cilic, of Croatia, won the 2014 matchup in straight sets, but this match resembled their 2010 second-round matchup in Flushing Meadows when Nishikori rallied for a five-set victory in 4 hours, 59 minutes, the fifth-longest men's singles match by time in US Open history.

Schiavone retires

Meanwhile, Italy's Francesca Schiavone has retired from tennis after a career in which she won the French Open title and three Fed Cup championships with Italy.

Schiavone, 38, said that she accomplished both her goals as a player, which were to win at Roland Garros and reach the top 10 in the world. She did both in the same year, with her 2010 French Open title helping propel her to No. 7 that year. She would peak at No. 4 - the highest ever for an Italian woman - in 2011.

She also played the longest Grand Slam match for a woman that year, overcoming six match points to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 1-6, 16-14 in 4 hours, 44 minutes in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

She is now coaching and says thather dream now is to bring a player to a Grand Slam tournament.

In another scorching hot day in New York and the extreme heat policy was back in effect for the third consecutive day at the US Open.

The policy allows a 10-minute break between the second and third sets of women's singles matches if either player requests one. For men's singles matches, the break would come between the third and fourth sets.

The policy is a rule on the women's tour, but not the men's. US Open officials began putting it in play last week when temperatures first soared into the mid-90s.