NEW YORK—Kei Nishikori arrived in New York seeking his first match win since Wimbledon.

The 2014 US Open finalist said escalating errors—not a lack of match play—was a primary cause of his third-round loss to Alex de Minaur.

Osaka: One Requirement to Partner Nishikori

Winless in 11 career matches vs. Top 10 opponents, the 20-year-old de Minaur exploited an uncharacteristic 60 unforced errors from Nishikori in a 6-2, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 victory on Grandstand to roll into his first Grand Slam fourth round in his 11th major appearance.

De Minaur's breakthrough snapped Nishikori's streak of successive semifinal runs in Flushing Meadows.

The 2014 US Open finalist had reached semifinals or better in three of his last four Flushing Meadows starts and was riding a streak of three consecutive major quarterfinals.

"Obviously he played good tennis," Nishikori said. "He served well and put a lot of the balls back. And I think for me it was too much unforced errors. I think it made it tougher to get to each game.

"There was too many unforced errors I wasn’t consistent like I’m used to and I have to. I mean also things going on and I think he played good and in certain moments I didn’t play well."

The 38th-ranked de Minaur committed half as many unforced errors (29) scoring his first Top 10 win in his first career encounter vs. Nishikori.

Though the seventh-seeded Japanese fell in the first round of both Montreal and Cincinnati, he said match play was not a factor today.

"It was okay before coming to this tournament," Nishikori said. "I was having good practices and I was confident. Just today he played good and nothing other than that."

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