Kei Nishikori left his comfort zone behind in an epic 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) victory over Gael Monfils at the Miami Open presented by Itau on Friday. The No. 6 seed saved five match points and advanced into the semi-finals after two and a half hours.

The No. 16 seeded Monfils came out firing, ripping a 109 mph service return en route to breaking Nishikori in the opening game. The Frenchman was all-in on his service games as well, topping 140 mph on the radar gun with his first delivery. He would end with 14 aces and 41/51 points won on his first serve. Nishikori kept pace with the explosive Monfils by making his second-serve returns count (26/40 points won) and by sneaking into the net at critical junctures.

By the start of the third set, Monfils, clothes soaked with sweat and clearly labouring under the Miami sun, appeared ready to throw in the towel. But the Frenchman instead began hitting with abandon and found his mark time and again. Down 2-4 in the deciding set, Monfils swept the next three games and held four match points with Nishikori serving to stay in the match at 4-5.

Nishikori did not allow Monfils, who was chasing his first win over a Top 10 Emirates ATP Rankings player since last April (d. Federer in Monte Carlo), to win the final point. The baseliner broke with his usual patterns of play and serve-and-volleyed to force a deciding tie-break, then took advantage of an ill-advised Monfils drop shot to move ahead for good. He improved to 16-5 in Miami, 2-0 in the FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry with Monfils, and matched his best showing in South Florida (2014 SF).

Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut are one win away from completing the Indian Wells-Miami double.

The fifth-seeded Frenchmen knocked out defending champions and No. 4 seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 6-3, 6-3 on Thursday to reach the final of the Miami Open presented by Itau. They capitalised on three of their five break points chances, while saving all three faced, to clinch victory in exactly one hour. 

The Bryans had been looking to win their third straight Miami title and fifth overall (2007-08, ’14-15).

Herbert and Mahut extended their winning streak on U.S. soil to 15 matches, beginning with their title run at the 2015 US Open. They claimed their team’s first Masters 1000 title two weeks ago at the BNP Paribas Open, where they dethroned Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock in the final.

Herbert and Mahut will face Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram for the title. The South African/American duo upended Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi 6-4, 6-2 in the other semi-final. Klaasen and Ram saved all four break points faced and advanced in 69 minutes.

Klaasen and Ram defeated reigning Australian Open champions Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares in their Miami opener, avenging their Melbourne quarter-final loss.

After hailing from the town of Dunblane to reach No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings and amass 35 tour-level titles, including two Grand Slams, Scotland’s Andy Murray has been featured in CNN’s Human To Hero show.

In the feature, Murray remembers his early playing days, discusses the relief – not joy – he felt at becoming the first British male in 77 years to win Wimbledon in 2013, and his excitement and priority shift after starting a family with his wife, Kim Sears.

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