Kei Nishikori battles past Nicolas Almagro into semi-final – Malaysian Open 2011
Playing the final quarterfinal of the Malaysian Open 2011 on Friday, 30thSeptember, Kei Nishikori jolted his opponent and spectators alike as he upset the top seeded, Nicolas Almagro for a spot in the semi-final of the
event. The Japanese world no.54 ousted the Spaniard world No.11 as he stormed up losing the first set winning 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4, in a long two hour and fourteen minutes match.
Playing at the Putra Stadium, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, indoor hard court, the Japanese mesmerized the stands and stunned his over confident rival, Almagro, who is also, seeded No.1 for this event. Anyhow, the two walked down
the blue court with a huge applaud from the spectators hoping to see an excellent match.
With the two taking their places, Nishikori served for the opening game of the match. However, the 21-year-old fell short and gave away an early breakpoint, 0-1.
Almagro followed with another win to extend his lead to 2-0 before the Japanese wonder boy started to roll his side of the scoreboard winning game 3, 1-2. Nishikori kept on lagging until game 6, when he served game 6 and broke
the world No.11 next to level up at 3-3.
Rallying two games win each, the two ended up in a tiebreaker with Nishikori to serve first. Pressurizing the young Japanese, Almagro overpowered the 21-year-old and snatched away the first set 7-6(5) and led the match, 1-0.
Captivating over the Japanese did not seem an easy job; rather the top seeded got a beating of his life next. Serving out the first game of set 2, Almagro broke the straight hair boy hoping to undo him easier than the first set.
However, Nishikori broke back in game 3 and served out game 4 to level up score at 2-2.
The two went up winning on respective serves until game 9 when Nishikori broke the world No.11 and served out the next game, game 10, to win the set, 6-4, and level up the match score, 1-1. Gaining back his form, Nishikori went
on for the kill in the third set.
Almagro once again served first hoping to redo the serve-n-break trick; however, the Spaniard himself got played this time. Breaking early, Nishikori took the lead winning the first two games of the set, 2-0, and switching the
serve back to the stunned world No.11.
Cutting down the lead Almagro won game 3, however, could not break back next to level up, 1-3. Battling out for the next few games neither of them could break each other. Nishikori maintained his 2 games lead and went on winning
the decider 6-4.
Nishikori now plays the third seeded Serb, Janko Tipsarevic in the semi-final of the event.
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