Kei Nishikori rallies past James Blake into the last 32 – Western & Southern Open 2012
Seeded 14th in the draw, Kei Nishikori of Japan put away a stiff challenge from local wild card entrant, James Blake, in the second round at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati on Wednesday. The Japanese contender
went down in the opener but bounced back to win the contest in three sets 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in an hour and 37 minutes.
There was no strike from either of the two players in the first five games, taking the score to 3-2 in favour of Blake. The American player broke Nishikori in the sixth and eighth to close the first set 6-2.
Blake fired three aces and 62 percent of the first serves in the first set. The American player won most of the points on his deliveries, converting 12 of the 16 first and seven of the 10 second serves into points. The right-hander
could not fare well on first returns, as he lost four of the 14 points on them but balanced that by securing eight of the 10 on the second ones.
In the second set, Blake made an even better start than the first, bagging opening two games to gain a 2-0 lead. However, the 32-year-old could not sustain his advantage, losing the following two and evening out the proceedings
at 2-2. Nishikori struck again in the ninth and served it out at 5-4.
The Japanese number one gave a mixed performance on his serves, as he did not hit any ace and committed one double fault. The 22-year-old kept his first delivery percentage at 69 and claimed 14 of the 18 points on them. The 5ft
10in tall was unable to put away the one break threat he came across but succeeded in utilising both opportunities he created for himself in the second set.
Nishikori and Blake broke each other once in the first six games of the final set to square off the score at 3-3. The Japanese star hit another blow to his American rival in the seventh and capitalised on it to win 6-4.
Ranked 18th in the world, Nishikori delivered 77 percent of the first serves and won 14 of the 20 points on them in the decider. Blake’s standard went down, as he hit just 30 percent of the first deliveries and lost
14 of the 20 first return points.
Nishikori will play the Swiss number two, Stanislas Wawrinka, in the third round.
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