The first racket of the world Andy Murray turned the tide of the quarter-final match with kei nishikori and the Japanese revenge for the recent defeat at the US Open.
Murray will face 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka for a place in the final in Paris.
"They are all obviously playing extremely well", Murray told reporters at his postmatch news conference.
"He's played fantastic this tournament so far", Murray said of the 32-year-old, the oldest Roland Garros semi-finalist since Jimmy Connors in 1985.
"Obviously for a couple of points after that I was sacked up, because I was frustrated at that moment", Murray said in his news conference after his 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (0), 6-1 win over eighth-seeded Nishikori.
"When we changed ends at 1-Love he told me, "You're playing too slowly".
Wawrinka has yet to drop a set in this year's tournament at Roland Garros and he hopes that stands him in good stead against the world number one.
"I probably need to play better than I did today, but you never know", Murray said. It certainly wasn't the best match I've played here.
It might have been expected to shift the momentum in Nishikori's favour, but he played a desperate tie-break and Murray reeled off all seven points. "Today (he) was maybe more erratic than usual, but I do think a little bit of that was to do with the conditions being hard". It was very windy down on the court. There wasn't much rhythm out there.
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Things that are near-perfect. "I said it after we won the Eastern Conference finals that we're getting ready for a juggernaut". Sharks in the deep water of the ocean and lions on the prowl out on the savanna. "No, only missed shots".
He will be playing in his 10th semi-final in Paris and has made it having lost just 22 games through five matches. And practice also was not good. Wawrinka is going to be tough to beat as long as he keeps his unforced errors below 30, which he's done three times this tournament.
"Obviously for a couple of points after that I was sacked up, because I was frustrated at that moment", he said.
Top-ranked Andy Murray was bemused by the chair umpire's decision to give him a time violation when he was preparing to serve during his French Open quarterfinal win against Kei Nishikori. I have never seen anyone get a warning after they have missed the ball toss.
"But that was a critical period of the match because he started way better than me".
Twelve months after becoming the first man in 47 years to hold all four grand slam titles, Djokovic exited with a 7-6 (7/5) 6-3 6-0 loss to Thiem, while Nadal moved into a 10th French Open semi-final after Pablo Carreno Busta retired with an abdominal problem trailing 6-2 2-0.
Murray will take on former champion Stan Wawrinka in a remake of last year's semifinal, which Murray won.
I have never seen that.
"It was flawless today, I'm very satisfied", Wawrinka said after his 12th win in 14 meetings with Cilic.
"I don't know how many games I lost this year, but I really don't care about this".
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