It was his first victory ever against a player ranked in the top two and it avenged the semi-final loss at the Rio Olympics where Murray went on to win gold and Nishikori settled for bronze.
Lucas Pouille was not prepared to say his pulsating four hour, fourth-round upset of 14-time grand slam winner Rafael Nadal at the US Open on Sunday was a career changing moment.
Factbox on Switzerland's Roger Federer,
Second seed Angelique Kerber stayed on track in her quest to unseat Serena Williams as world number one by beating Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia 6-2, 7-6(7) on Wednesday to reach the third round of the US Open.
With Wimbledon scrapped due to the pandemic, a flashback of some of the best moments from the last five championships at SW19.
Serena Williams was forced to go on the attack once again to defend equal prize money after she reached a ninth Wimbledon final in a new record time. The world number one blasted Russia's Elena Vesnina off Centre Court in just 48mins 34sec, the fastest ever semi-final at the All England Club. Vesnina earned 500,000 ($649,000) by making the last four.
Having dug in early on to stay with Federer, Nishikori ended up running away with the match to inflict a first straight sets defeat in the ATP Finals round-robin stages on the 20-time Grand Slam champion.
Images from Day 3 of the French Open in Paris on Tuesday
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
Former world number one Maria Sharapova eased past defending champion Peng Shuai 6-3, 6-1 at the Tianjin Open on Saturday to reach her first WTA final in almost two and a half years.
Serena Williams must navigate a heavily American quarter of the draw including sister Venus to complete a calendar sweep of the four Grand Slams, while two sensational quarter-finals loom on the men's side after Thursday's U.S. Open draw.
Defending champion Angelique Kerber battled her nerves and blew a match point in the second set before finally overcoming Lesia Tsurenko 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 to reach the second round.
There was also the exciting Rugby Union match that added that much more excitement to the past week. Rediff.com has that and more snapped right here. We bring you a glance of all the action from the week gone by
A summary of Friday's tennis action from around the world.
World No 55 Haase improved to a 2-2 career record against Zverev, including victories in their last two meetings.
List of US Open men's singles champions since the open era began in 1968:
With the physical demands of modern-day tennis taking its toll the tournament will start without four of the top 11 in the ATP rankings including defending champion Stan Wawrinka who ended his season early with a knee injury.
Rafael Nadal, after having suffered a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) loss in the quarter-finals of the Swiss Indoors to teenager Borna Coric, has shut down his season to undergo appendix surgery.
Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams are top seeds at the major starting Monday
Reigning champions Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams have been named top seeds for the Australian Open starting on Monday.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday.
Here is a timeline of Djokovic's decline since the last of his 12 Grand Slam titles.
Roger Federer became the latest big name to get sucked up by a whirlwind called Nick Kyrgios as the Australian tyro sent the Swiss top seed spinning out of the Madrid Masters in the second round on Wednesday.
The triple grand slam winner, who will take over from Serb Novak Djokovic at the top when the rankings are updated on Monday, still went out on centre court for a practice session in front of a bemused crowd.
List of Australian Open men's singles champions since the event began in 1905 (Australian unless stated):
World number five Roger Federer delivered a tennis masterclass to beat rising star Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-3 and clinch a record ninth Halle Open title on Sunday as he lay down a marker in the lead-up to Wimbledon.
Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka advanced to the Rogers Cup quarter-finals on Thursday to set up their first meeting since the American's infamous row with an umpire overshadowed last year's US Open final.
Top seed Roger Federer will challenge for a ninth Halle Open title after reaching the Wimbledon warm-up event final with a 6-4 7-6(5) victory over rising Russian talent Karen Khachanov on Saturday.
Big-serving Isner reaches Montreal second round
PHOTOS from day four of the Wimbledon championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London on Friday.
Novak Djokovic sauntered past Spaniard Feliciano Lopez to reach the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters on Thursday but Andy Murray had to claw past big-serving American John Isner after losing a first-set tiebreaker.
Novak Djokovic extended his winning streak at the China Open to 27 matches with a 6-2, 6-2 demolition over big-serving American John Isner on Friday.
Stan Wawrinka outslugged Japanese sixth seed Kei Nishikori 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-2 in energy-sapping humidity at Flushing Meadows on Friday to set up a US Open final against world number one Novak Djokovic.
Wimbledon's new head groundsman said on Thursday he is "100 percent happy" with the grass courts despite a string of players tumbling out of the tournament through injury.
Top seeds Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams face challenging early tests at the US Open following Friday's draws for the year's last Grand Slam starting on Monday.
Rafael Nadal rallied from a set down to ease past Fabio Fognini 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the Italian Open quarter-finals on Friday and set up a mouth-watering clash against long-time adversary Novak Djokovic for a place in Sunday's final. Djokovic plotted a similar path to the Spanish clay-court king when the Serb lost the first set against Japan's Kei Nishikori before recovering to win 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 and seal an open-era record 51st career meeting against Nadal.
Serena Williams kept her bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam on track, powering past big sister Venus 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 on a steamy star-studded night at the US Open in New York, on Tuesday.
Andy Murray gave his fans a fright before recovering to beat Croatia's Marin Cilic to win the Aegon Championships for the third time at Queen's Club on Sunday.
Britain's Andy Murray enjoyed a routine win over Argentina's Juan Monaco to ease into the third round of the tennis tournament at the Rio Games on Tuesday, while Spain's world number nine David Ferrer was knocked out.
It was the Russian's first competitive match since she withdrew from the St Petersburg Open in January.