Tomas Berdych bows out to Kei Nishikori in the first round clash – Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel 2011
Surprising outcomes keep coming in the opening round of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel and the world number seven, Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic, suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of the 32nd ranked Japanese competitor,
Kei Nishikori, on Tuesday evening.
The contest took two hours and four minutes to conclude, with Nishikori wrapping the three-setter at 3-6-, 6-3, 6-2, to dump the fourth seeded Berdych and booked a place in the round of 16 of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals)
World Tour 500 event.
The local crowd present at the indoor hard courts of the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, witnessed an amazing turnaround from the Japanese competitor, who recovered from being one set down to reel off the last two sets of
the match. Nishikori was blown away by the fourth seed in the opening set but made a tremendous come back in the following sets to surprise everyone.
“I’m really happy the way I played today,” said the world number 32 Nishikori in his post match reviews. “It was a slow start for me, but getting rhythm in the second set and playing really well in the third, so I’m really happy.”
21-year-old Nishikori is having a brilliant season run so far, having a 33-20 winning record till date and he recently became the highest ranked Japanese tennis player in the history as well. He also defeated Berdych in straight
sets at the Brisbane International two years ago and now leads the head-to-head series by 2-0 against the world number seven.
Berdych registered only one serve break in the entire matchup, while suffered three crushing ones from the Japanese opponent to finish on the losing side in the end. He took the opening set in a convincing manner but suddenly lost
his way through to the second set of the match. Nishikori nailed one break of serve to clinch the set number two and then carried on with his winning momentum in the final set as well, breaking the Czech serve twice to conclude his emphatic victory.
Nishikori meets the unseeded Italian, Andreas Seppi, in the second round to battle out for a spot in the quarter-finals of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel. Seppi cleared the opening round after taking down Gilles Muller of Luxembourg
in three sets, 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 6-2, to book a clash with the Japanese wildcard in the round of 16.
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