It was a rough day to be a seed in Cincinnati on Wednesday, as Stefanos Tsitsipas, Kei Nishikori, and Alexander Zverev tumbled out of the Western & Southern Open. Nishikori lost to Japanese countryman Yoshihito Nishioka.
The Nos. 3, 4, and 5 seeds waved goodbye to Cincinnati in a brutal day of second-round play. Tsitsipas, who had an impressive start to the season, has shown signs of weakness recently. The young Greek was defending final points in Canada but found himself ousted by world No. 48 Hubert Hurkacz in the second round. He duplicated that disappointing effort this week, with a second straight second-round ouster–this time at the hands of an improved Jan-Lennard Struff.
No. 4 seed Kei Nishikori was dispatched 7-6(2), 6-2 by countryman and friend Yoshihito Nishioka, a qualifier ranked 77th in the world. It was the first official meeting between the two men, but they are familiar with each other, as they often hit together. It was the younger, much lower-ranked player who displayed cleaner, more aggressive hard court tennis. In fact, Nishioka buttoned up his first win over a top-10 opponent in one hour and 40 minutes. He will take on Alex De Minaur in the third round.
Finally, as day drifted into evening, the No. 5 seed Alexander Zverev played the final victim to the seed bloodletting. The German, who has had unpredictable results for the second half of the tennis season, produced a couple of error-plagued sets to go down 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4 to Miomir Kecmanovic. He donated a positively miserable 20 double-faults to the Serb’s cause, and went just 2 for 8 in break points saved. He came to Cincinnati off a quarterfinal showing in Montreal, where he lost to Karen Khachanov.
The good news for the Cincinnati event is that top seeds Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer are still very much alive. They will be in action on Thursday.
Nishi losing to Nishi? No shame in that, but he had the trainer called ,maybe breathing problems
Zverev has the service yips
He sure does. Some of his DFs were shocking. The kids sitting behind me were heckling him a little. I don’t approve of that in general, but what they said wasn’t incorrect.
Feels like it really does not matter much. Either Djoker or Fed is going to win as per usual. Everyone else is playing for 3rd or 4th place.
Or 2nd and 4th since Djoker/Fed are on the same side of the draw, courtesy of Rafa.
Cheryl is in Cincy. Be jealous.
What is going to be the excuse this time from the Kyrgios apologists? What a freaking disgrace. Appalled that the referee didn’t throw him out, or that the public didn’t demand the behavior worthy of what they paid to be there. All of them enablers.
Oh and by the way, is it not obvious that this man has serious mental issues ? He’s going to show up dead in his hotel one of these days.
Incredible that players keep putting up with this. Embarrassing.
when Nick gets like that, I find it mentally exhausting to continue watching. So I don’t.
I said it be before, when he was ousted early in Montreal, but Tsitsipas is in the middle of a mini slump. Now, Struff can be dangerous, there’s no shame losing to him. But Tsitsipas needs to learn to win these kind of close matches if he wants to become a reliable top ten player. Hopefully the rest before the USO will do him some good physically and mentally, since he has already played a lot of matches this year.
Tsitsi may be in the beginning stages of a slump, but Zverev sure is in the middle of a serious slump. And the string of double faults indicate that of is all mental. There’s nothing physically wrong with him, but atm He doesn’t seem to be able to deal with his life on tour as a professional tennis player. Too bad that his partnership with Lendl didn’t work out. I think that Zverev needs an experienced and inspiring coach who is not his father.
Er.. all these youngsters, they’re having problems! Shapo is one, followed by Sasha, and now Tsitsipas. FAA is also starting to lose early in tournaments. I think they still need more time to get used to the weekly grinds, it’s both physically and mentally taxing on their young bodies.
Khachanov and Medvedev are at least one or two years older, at 23, they’re beginning to reach their prime and both are doing well now. Khachanov has his mini slump after winning Paris Masters but he’s now getting back on track, reaching QFs or SFs at Masters or slams.
Tsitsipas’s problem I feel is that he usually starts slow, like Rafa, and then he has to give chase after losing the first set. Sometimes, even when he wins the first set, he just couldn’t sustain his level, loses some intensity and then loses the next set. I feel he still doesn’t know the gist of how to win matches regularly or consistently.
Players go through patches, what do you expect. The tour is tiring and thats why Fed/Djoko missed Canada. All 3 of those players will probably come good at the US Open.
Yes, Lucky, all three players you mentioned, have problems atm. And some are clearly overplayed.
For most observers the most surprising case is probably not Tsitsi but Zverev, since he is the most experienced one, and unlike Tsitsi he has already won a few very important tournaments. Many experts and fans expected that he would finally make his great breakthrough at the slams this year after winning in London in November 2018 – and exactly the opposite happened! Now he also started to underperform at non-slam events. And the amount of double faults signalizes mental troubles.
I’m surprised nevertheless that Tsitsi has so much difficulties to win these close matches, since he comes across as poised and mostly very mature – unless he struggles with his shoelaces ☺
I fully agree with you that he hasn’t figured out, yet, how to win matches – especially close ones – on a regular basis. He needs to do that, though. Winning these close matches more often than not, is the hallmark of the great players.
Jim Courier, I’m not convinced at all that these players will perform well at the USO. And a lot depends on the draw, anyway.