Kei Nishikori eases into the quarters at US Men’s Clay Court Championship
6th seeded Japanese Kei Nishikori downed Russian Igor Andreev in straight sets to advance into the quarters at the River oaks Country Club in Houston on Thursday.
After losing to the Russian recently at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells, the 21-year-old Nishikori took his revenge by trashing Andreev out of this US Men’s Clay Court Championship and booked his spot in the quarter-finals. He registered a 6-3, 6-3 win over 27-year-old Russian and levelled his head-to-head series by 1-1.
Ranked 61 in the South African Airways ATP World Rankings, Nishikori is in good shape this season as he made a quarter-final berth at Chennai and reached the semi-final at Delray Beach before losing to 6th seeded Serb Janko Tipsarevic. He entered this event confidently and triumphed over the Croatian qualifier Franco Skugor in straight sets in the first round.
The Japanese, who is 36 ranks above his rival in the world rankings, displayed tremendous skills in the match and outclassed Andreev completely. He held his serve in the first game spectacularly and later kept his momentum by holding his entire serves. Nishikori hammered three aces, had a higher first serve share of 74 percent as compared to Russian’s 61 percent and registered an impressive 76 percent win on it. In addition to this, he saved one of one breakpoint and converted one of the two breakpoint opportunity to his advantage in the eighth game to clinch the set with a 6-3 win.
He carried his winning ways into the second set as he held his opening serve through his amazing and quick forehands and backhands. Though he produced a lower first serve share this time but earned a convincing 69 percent win on it. To spice the set further, he conceded zero breakpoint and converted two out of five breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to seal the set with a 6-3 score line again.
Andreev on the other hand showed dismal performance as he double faulted four times and clobbered a lower first serve share. He found only a single breakpoint opportunity which he failed to convert to his advantage. The lower ranked Russian saved only 57 percent of the breakpoints he conceded and eventually exited from the second round of this ATP World Tour 250 event.
The Japanese will next face the top seeded American Mardy Fish who reached this spot after overwhelming Spaniard Albert Ramos in straight sets on another court. Nishikori can upset the Spaniard if he converts more breakpoint opportunities to his advantage and he needs practice harder.
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