Kei Nishikori battles into semi-finals of the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships
Kei Nishikori continued his magnificent run at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships 2011 as he defeated American qualifier Ryan Sweeting 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 in just over two hours to make a place for himself in the semi-finals of the tournament.
The crowd at Delray Beach witnessed an enthralling contest. Both contestants played very well but Nishikori was the one who converted his opportunities at crucial moments of the game and came out victorious.
There were slight differences in the serve statistics of the two competitors. Nishikori led the first serve percentage with 65 while Sweeting followed him with 57. Both men committed three double faults each throughout the whole match with Sweeting cracking
8 aces to the Japanese’s 5.
The opening set was a great tussle for supremacy. None of the contestants dropped their serve and exchanged some elegant cross-court winners. Nishikori got two chances to break the serve but he wasted them both, taking the score to 6-6.
Eventually, a tiebreaker was enforced which Sweeting won and sealed the set 7-6.
The Japanese redefined his game plan and came out firing in the following set. The momentum of the game shifted dramatically in the second set as Sweeting lost his brilliant touch. Nishikori won two serve breaks to get the commanding lead in the set and
then finished it off at 6-2 to bring the match at one set apiece.
With the two contestants bagging one set each, the decider was sure to be a thriller. Both men threw their best at each other to stay in the match. Nishikori amazingly won 15 of 16 first serve points to put his American opponent under pressure. Sweeting
failed the test of nerves and gifted a serve break to the Japanese who used it to ensure his victory in the contest.
Nishikori will be taking on Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia in the semi-finals of the event. The Serb defeated Ivan Dodig in straight sets 7-6, 6-1 in his quarterfinal match to make way into the last four.
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