Top two seeds Kei Nishikori and Ernests Gulbis will be aiming for spots in the Kuala Lumpur semifinals when they take the court on Friday. They are going up against Marinko Matosevic and Benjamin Becker, respectively.
(1) Kei Nishikori vs. Marinko Matosevic
Nishikori and Matosevic will be going head-to-head for the fifth time in their careers and for the third time this season when they do battle in the quarterfinals of the Malaysian Open on Friday. All four of their previous encounters have gone Nishikori’s way and all four have been contested on hard courts. Their most memorable showdown came at this year’s Australian Open, where a 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 for the Japanese star led to an epic press-conference tirade launched by Matosevic. They also faced each other in Miami two months later, when Nishikori cruised 6-4, 6-1.
It has already been a stellar week for Matosevic, who is through to his sixth ATP quarterfinal of the year following victories over Nick Kyrgios and Go Soeda. Nishikori, the U.S. Open runner-up, got back in action with a 6-2, 6-3 rout of Rajeev Ram on Wednesday. The top seed’s current form and past history against his opponent plus Matosevic’s recent quarterfinal failures are tough to look past. The underdog is 0-5 in ATP quarters in 2014 and 1-10 in total sets in those matches.
Pick: Nishikori in 2
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Benjamin Becker vs. (2) Ernests Gulbis
Gulbis and Becker will be squaring off for the second time in their careers at the ATP level on Friday. Their only previous meeting came at the 2011 Australian Open, where Becker rolled 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-4. At 26 years old, however, Gulbis is now playing the most consistent tennis of his career. The Latvian is up to No. 13 in the world thanks to a 37-16 record for the season. He kicked off his Kuala Lumpur campaign on Thursday by battling past Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-1.
Becker earned his place in the last eight by taking out Joao Sousa and Pierre-Hugues Herbert in straight sets. The 66th-ranked German is just 20-22 for the year, but he appears to be righting the ship after heading into this week on a three-match losing streak dating back to the Winston-Salem second round. Becker is dangerous on an indoor hard court, but Gulbis will likely have to much game and his mentality in competitive matches–further evidenced by his recovery against Petzschner–has improved significantly of late.
Pick: Gulbis in 3
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