Janko Tipsarevic vs. Kei Nishikori – Delray Beach International Semi-Final Preview
Sixth seeded Serbian Janko Tipsarevic takes on Japan’s Kei Nishikori in the first semi-final of the Delray Beach International Championships on Saturday. The match promises to be a tough battle, as both players are in top form.
The Serb defeated the Croatian Ivan Dodig in the quarter-final, 7-6, 6-1 while Nishikori outplayed the American qualifier Ryan Sweeting in a three-set match 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 to qualify for the semi-final.
Both of the semi-finalists have faced each other once before, as Tipsarevic overwhelmed the Japanese in their quarter-final match at Chennai last month. It is quite hard to predict the winner among these two in the Delray Beach semi-final as both men are
in magnificent form.
There are certain similarities in the performances of these two players in the tournament so far. Both players have dropped only one set on course to the semi-final and have used their powerful serve game to outplay their opponents.
Tipsarevic has been involved in tie breaker rounds on four occasions in the tournament and has always been successful in the deciders. This reflects the mental resilience of the Serb under pressure. These statistics also signify that Tipsarevic has not been
very successful in breaking the opponents’ serve and is pushed to tie breakers for results.
The other competitor, Nishikori, has merely played two tie breakers in his three tournament matches so far. His game play included breaking the opponents’ serve early in the sets and then consolidate his position in the match with attacking cross-court winners.
It will be interesting to see that whether Nishikori will be able to penetrate through the solid defence of Tipsarevic and how he will keep his nerve under control in any possible tie breaker rounds.
The Serb has an average first serve percentage of 67 in the tournament with his Japanese opponent following him with 62. Although there seems to be no big difference in their serve accuracy, it can be a critical success factor in the contest.
Left-handed players have created some problems for Tipsarevic in the past, but the Serb is always very good with his return game against the right-handers. He executed some elegant cross-court strokes on-the-run in his quarter-final matchup against Dodig.
Nishikori need to be very proactive to cut down the angles of the Serb’s slanting strokes for success in the semi-final.
The proficiency of converting break chances is also of concern for the Serb. Tipsarevic has squandered 12 break points in the whole tournament, with ten alone coming in the second round match against Blaz Kavcic. Converting opportunities to one’s own advantage
is the essential requirement in big matches and the Serb needs to rectify this inability.
The 21-year-old Nishikori was far better than Tipsarevic in terms of bagging the break points. He frittered away a total of six break chances throughout the tournament, which appears quite a reasonable figure.
Looking at the recent performances of both men in the quarter-finals, it appears that Tipsarevic has a slight edge over Nishikori. The Serb fought hard in the opening set of the quarter-final but simply blew away Dodig in the second one. He did not give
a single point to his opponent in the first set tie breaker and wrapped up the second set at 6-1. Taking this performance into consideration and the fact that Tipsarevic holds a 1-0 lead against Nishikori, the Serb is clearly the favourite to win.
Nishikori also won his quarter-final match with an assertive score 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 and will try to carry on his wining momentum in the semi-final. Stakes are still high for the sixth seeded Tipsarevic, but it can not be ignored that Nishikori had won the Delray
Beach tournament in 2008, with the Serb never achieving the same feat.
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