Kei Nishikori prevails over Mikhail Kukushkin in the first round – Wimbledon Championships 2012
Asia’s highest ranked player on the ATP World Tour, Kei Nishikori of Japan, defeated world number 52, Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan, in straight sets 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round at the Wimbledon Championships on Tuesday.
Nishikori and Kukushkin exchanged a break in the first 11 games, taking the score to 6-5 in favour of the Japanese. Ranked 20th in the world, Nishikori struck in the 12th and sealed it 7-5.
Kukushkin struck in the opening game of the second set and won his following serve to move ahead 2-0. However, Nishikori bounced back in style, as he grabbed six of the next seven to seal it 6-3.
The Japanese made a good start in the third set, as he broke Kukushkin in the first game but Nishikori struck back immediately to level the score at 1-1. The Japanese hit another blow in the ninth and served it out at 5-4.
The Florida, USA resident hit only one ace and committed three double faults in the match. He converted 44 of the 61 first and 18 of the 34 second serves into points.
Nishikori took two hours and 20 minutes to complete the win over his Kazakh rival and reach the last 64.
It was a rare occasion that two Asian players from the ATP World Tour were playing each other in a Grand Slam match. Although, China’s Li Na became the first ever Asian player, male or female, to capture a Grand Slam title, when
she won the French Open last year but there is lack of talent on the men’s side.
Four of the top players in the ATP Doubles Rankings have players from sub continent but things are a lot different in the singles category. Recently, Nishikori raised his standard and reached the 16th position in the
rankings but he is now back at the 20th spot. There are only a handful of players from Asia in the main draw of Grand Slam and they too get knocked out in early rounds.
Nishikori will face either Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia or France’s Florent Serra in the second round
Tags: