Needing to reach at least the semifinals of the Erste Bank Open in order to gain ground in the race to the Nitto ATP Finals, Kei Nishikori began his week with a 7-6(3), 5-7, 7-2 defeat ofFrances Tiafoe on Tuesday afternoon. Tiafoe cracked 10 aces without double-faulting, but Nishikori still managed to get the job done after two hours and eight minutes.
Japan’s top player currently stands at No. 10 in the race to the year-end championship but ninth if either Juan Martin Del Potro or Rafael Nadal pulls out. Because he has already achieved success at the maximum number of 500-point tournaments this season, Nishikori must win at least two more matches to add points to his total.
His chief London rival at present is John Isner, who answered Nishikori’s victory with a three-set win of his own. The 6’10” American, who regained the No. 9 spot by advancing to last week’s Intrum Stockholm Open semis, fought off two match points before outlasting Cameron Norrie 6-7(1), 6-4, 7-6(7).
Isner adds 45 points and now leads Nishikori by 3,065 to 3,000.
At the Swiss Indoors Basel, meanwhile, Roger Federer began his quest for a ninth title by holding off Filip Krajinovic 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Federer led by a set and a break before temporarily taking his foot off the gas. But he eventually restored order to a roller-coaster ride–even though he gave back another break at 5-2 in the third–that lasted two hours and nine minutes.
Federer broke Krajinovic six times to make up for a dreadful service performance of his own, complete with six double-faults and a first-serve percentage of 47.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9enRlekd8Q
“It was a bit more of a hard-fought victory, but they feel good, too, especially knowing that I have the day off tomorrow,” the 37-year-old commented. “So it’s no problem having played three sets today.
“I didn’t serve very well. I think I was misfiring the corners; I was not hitting the lines enough. Clearly you make your life more difficult, but still I was up 6-2, 3-1, break points, so things could have ended very quickly today even though I didn’t have the best serve percentage stats. But maybe that’s exactly what caught up to me eventually. It’s just getting used to [the conditions]. This is where the first rounds can be tricky.”
Federer probably wanted a shot at John Millman after the underdog Aussie stunned him in round four of this summer’s U.S. Open, but that will not be the case. Instead, the world No. 3 will meet Jan-Lennard Struff in the second round. Struff beat Millman 7-6(3), 6-2.
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not good from Fed
Maybe his hand still hurts. He had an off day serving and still won. Not bad. Given a choice between Millman and Struff I’d take Millman too. Struff has a wicked serve but I think Fed will get past him in 2 competitive sets.