Kei Nishikori is two wins away from a third career title at the Japan Open after crushing Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-3 during quarterfinal action on Saturday. Nishikori fired six aces without double-faulting and won 85 percent of his first-serve points to prevail after one hour and 22 minutes.
“I was very happy today,” Japan’s top player assured. “This week, it’s been great, everything. My serve, return, strokes–I’m feeling pretty confident this week…. I think it was one of the best service matches I’ve had the past couple of months. I’m very happy with my serve. I had many free points, many aces and only a few games I struggled today, so I was serving really well. That’s why I was able to be aggressive on my return games.”
A title would move Kei Nishikori to No. 9 in the race to London–good for the first alternate spot. He would pass John Isner and climb within 505 points of No. 8 Dominic Thiem and within 520 points of No. 7 Kevin Anderson. Anderson fell to Richard Gasquet 7-6(6), 7-6(4) in the Tokyo quarterfinals.
Friday highlights:
“It was a great match; I played well,” Gasquet assessed. “It was really intense, every single point. I played my best level. You need to play very good when you are facing Kevin. I played two incredible tiebreaks–that’s why I think I won the match. I’m very happy with the way I played.”
Gasquet leads the head-to-head series against Nishikori 7-2, but the latter has won two of their last three meetings.
“He’s one of the best players in the world–no doubt about it,” Gasquet said of Nishikori. “I know he’s playing great. I have nothing to lose. It will be a great match for me. I’ll have to play at my best level.”
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nice one, Nishi