Kei Nishikori sends Rui MacHado home from Barcelona Open in second round
Japanese tennis pro Kei Nishikori prevailed over lucky loser Rui MacHado of Portugal in straight sets at the second round of the 2011 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, defeating his opponent easily to reach the third round of the prestigious
red clay tournament. Despite the fact that the Japanese Number 1 closed the match with a 6-1, 6-4 win, the actual meeting last just over two hours and fifty-nine minutes. This is highly unusual for a straight-sets match.
Nishikori played a superior game during the match, hitting from the baseline to break his opponent twice. Both players did not score any aces and committed one double fault each, but Nishikori won 64 per cent of his first serve
points to take the lead in this set. He was by far the better player, barely giving MacHado time to slot in a game during the set. The Japanese pro won 61 per cent of the total points in the set, and took the lead 6-1 with a fry in the first set.
Rui MacHado seemed to get his act together in the second set, although it was already too late. The player was only broken once, and committed no double faults throughout this year. Nishikori, on the other hand, scored one ace
but negated it slightly with one double fault. However, MacHado could not break him even once in this set. The two players fought back and forth, playing an extremely long set as Nishikori struggled slightly against his Portuguese opponent. MacHado held on
for as long as he could, but eventually gave in to Nishikori’s relentless efforts. He won eight points less than Nishikori, who took set with 57 per cent of the total points. The final score-line was 6-1, 6-4 to Kei Nishikori.
Both players have never faced each other before, and their head-to-head record is now 1-0 to the Japanese pro, who is currently ranked within the ATP Top 50 at World Number 48. Nishikori will be facing either Feliciano Lopez or
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the next round of the event.
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