Kei Nishikori battles past Mikhail Kukushkin into final four – Davidoff Swiss Indoors 2011
Japanese Kei Nishikori rallied past Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin in a three setter nail biter match to reach the semi-finals at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors 2011, an ATP World Tour 500 series event taking place at St. Jakobshalle in
Basel, Switzerland. He registered a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory over the 23-year-old Kazakh to lock horns with the world number one Novak Djokovic on Friday.
World number thirty-two, Nishikori overpowered the Kazakh, ranked eighty-one spots below him, in a two hour and thirty-nine minutes long match. He not only took lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against Kukushkin but also
advanced into the last four.
After the Kazakh held his second serve in the third game, Nishikori went on rage mode to reel off next four games in a row. Despite losing his serve in the eighth game, he maintained his form to clinch the opener with a 6-4 win.
The Japanese defended one out of two breakpoints faced but capitalised on two out of three breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
The Russian-born Kukushkin found $1,000,000 track in the second set and after getting the first blood in the second game, he went 2-0 up. Despite losing two serves after this and trailing 3-4, he broke again in the eighth game
to square the scores at 4-4. The Kazakh then held remaining serves and capitalised on another breakpoint chance to his advantage in the last game to seal the equaliser by winning seven games to five. He dusted away five out of seven breakpoints came across
and converted half of the six breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
The Florida resident, Nishikori raised the bar of his game again in the decider. He got the coveted break in the opening game and regardless of losing his serve in the very next game, the Japanese broke the Kazakh’s serve again
to take a 2-1 lead. Nishikori lost his upper hand again in the sixth game but cashed in another breakpoint chance in the ninth game to eventually bag the victory with a 6-4 score line. He failed to fend off both breakpoints faced but converted three out of
six breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
"It's a great feeling to reach three semi-finals in six weeks," said the happy Nishikori. "I knew it was going to be a tough week. Beating Tomas Berdych in the first round and getting to the semi-finals has been a great experience.
Next challenge for the Japanese is the top seeded Serb Novak Djokovic who has just lost three matches this season.
"Djokovic is playing unbelievable this year. He doesn't have many weaknesses, so I will need to play a bit more aggressive than usual and play my best tennis to beat him."
24-year-old Serb bounced from a set down to register a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over the Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis and extended lead in the head-to-head series by 6-0 against Baghdatis.
Djokovic lost his serve twice but cashed in all three breakpoint opportunities to his advantage, earning a three setter victory in one hour and thirty-eight minutes.
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