Kei Nishikori and Dominic Thiem will be squaring off for the fifth time in their careers and for the second time this fall when they wrap up their round-robin campaigns at the Nitto ATP Finals on Thursday afternoon.
Nishikori leads the head-to-head series 3-1 after crushing Thiem 6-3, 6-1 on the indoor hard courts of Vienna late last month. Unsurprisingly, Thiem’s lone win over the Japanese veteran has come on clay–via a 6-2, 6-0, 5-7, 6-4 scoreline at the French Open earlier this season. Nishikori has defeated the Austrian on all three surfaces: hard courts, clay (2016 in Rome), and grass (2015 in Halle).
Although both men are still mathematically alive for semifinals qualification in London, Thiem is all but out due to records of 0-2 in matches and 0-4 in total sets. The 25-year-old turned in a decent performance on Sunday but lost to a red-hot Kevin Anderson 6-3, 7-6(10) before spraying 34 unforced errors in a 6-2, 6-3 setback against Roger Federer on Tuesday night.
“I was playing very, very bad,” Thiem admitted. “Many unusual mistakes…. I made mistakes where I don’t really know where they are coming from. At the end [there were] way too many unforced errors.”
Nishikori did not played well in either one of his first two Group B contests–not even in a 7-6(4), 6-3 upset of an out-of-sorts Federer in his opener. The world No. 9 proceeded to get blown off the court by Anderson 6-0, 6-1 on Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s different surface; this one is much quicker,” Nishikori said of his recent rout of Thiem in Vienna. “He’s obviously a good player; he’s done really well this year. So I’m sure it’s going to be a tough one. I have to raise my level, for sure.”
It may be easier for the 28-year-old to step up his game because he remains in very realistic semifinal contention. Nishikori will likely advance with a win unless he goes three sets and Federer beats Anderson in straights. He could also go through with a three-set loss if Federer goes down to Anderson. Thiem, on the other hand, is basically done.
Pick: Nishikori in 3
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Fed wants Thiem
Agree…Nishi in 3.
I really feel sorry for Dominic. He’s such a great guy,a pure class act on and off the court,but simply he can’t adapt his game outside of clay.
The commentators were saying that with Fed’s shaky form,if Thiem was able to keep the ball in play and prolong the rallies,he would be in with a good chance to take at least a set from him. But no,he just keeps bashing the ball as harder as he can and making tons of unforced errors,giving matches away. I mean,he’s getting embarrased out there,as he looks clueless in these conditions against the top opposition. He should be getting close to his peak right now,however I don’t see any improvements at all from the last few years. I got to the conclusion that Thiem’s tennis IQ isn’t that high,many times he doesn’t really know when to to come forward and play the right shot. Maybe it’s also a technique problem,he needs time to set up his shots and that probably also keeps holding him back. Still,I would be shocked if he hang up his racket without a RG title to his name.
He’s a younger version of Stan!
He’s actually not that ‘useless’! Do you remember how he pushed Rafa to the limit at the USO recently? The thing is, he couldn’t produce that kind of tennis week in and week out; still, he won a 250 title on HC recently.
I think he should go the route of Stan; he has the power and a good enough serve, he should aim to hit with precision and to be able to hit that way consistently throughout three or even five sets and that’s how you could win a slam (see Stan). He lacks the finesse so he has to make up for it by being precise and go for the attack.
It’s also not unlike a Delpo, who overwhelms his opponents by his raw power, but Delpo lacks the fitness week in week out. It’s still a Stan that Djoko feared the most at a slam final, because once the power (and precision) game is on, it’s hard to counter it, not even for the big three (see also Cilic vs Fed at USO2014).
Nah Lucky,Thiem is no Wawrinka/Delpo when it comes down to level of play/agressiveness. Stan can hit very flat balls with a lot of weight,Thiem can only dream to hit as clean as him. Of course he’s not useless,if the WTF was played on clay,probably only Djoko could take him down there.
Yeah,he catched some fire at the USO,despite having some scares in the early rounds,played really well against Anderson and should have beaten Rafa,IMO. The thing is,apart from that,what has he done of relevant on HC? Barely nothing,which is kind of concerning at this stage of his career. Of course from the achievements point,he might be somewhere close to Stan,winning a Slam or more past his prime as Stan did.
Stan doesn’t hit flat shots, he hits with spins too. The difference between Stan and Thiem is like I said, the precision of his shots (and consistency too).
Given time (and practice) Thiem can be another Stan, esp on clay! Stan too had to fight through his matches on the HCs, it’s not like he’s beating everyone left right and centre easily to win his USO or AO titles! Moreover, Thiem will outlast the big three and may have better chances winning slams against the field sans the big three (or four).
He’ll probably win at least 1 RG and maybe even 1 USO. His not that bad on hardcourts. He lost against KA which is a matchup really bad for him (tall guys who keeps the rallies short, like khachanov). Against roger he was feeling the pressure of keeping the h2h on his favour and played an horrible match. When he feels the pressure he plays really badly, it has also happened a couple of other times this year, but at his best it’s almost unbeatable. Another problem is that he can’t keep the same level throughout the whole tournament or even the match or the set. If he can fix these things and adjust his footwork on hardcourts he’ll climb up the rankings. Also he needs to improve on grass too.
I do feel the TOP ten now vs the TOP ten say five to eight years back, the quality of the players (except the big three) has gone down.
In the past, we had a Tsonga, a Berdych and a Ferrer together with Delpo and the big four occupying the TOP eight and frequently occupying all or almost all the QF slots at Masters and Slams! Now? Sasha couldn’t even reach the QF at the slams (except once), Thiem could only do it at the FO; Cilic is so inconsistent…..Dimi and Sock fell by the wayside, Goffin was a bit unlucky with injuries.
Hopefully, the next gen guys can do something next year; we need fresh young capable players in the TOP ten; cant imagine we have 7 players in their 30s inside TOP ten now, and Kei will be 30 come next year!
Thiem is really consistent in slams, his problems are the masters 1000. The quality is not gone down imo, I mean, not at the end of 2018. In 2017 I could have agreed with you. The quality of the top10 was really bad.
The quality of 2018 hasn’t gone down compared to 2017 but it has gone down compared to say 2012 or before, that’s what I meant.
Thiem was consistent at slams in reaching R4 and that’s not good enough considered that he’s a TOP eight player! He should be consistently reaching QF instead!
I agree,unfortunately Khachanov wasn’t able to enter the top 10(would’ve been great to have him in London instead of Isner,who looks dead tired) and the same goes for Coric/Tsitsipas. We’ll have to keep an eye on Medvedev,who had some really nice runs this season. I’m very curious to see how De Minaur appears next season,he has some wheels,his court coverage is just INSANE. Of course he seems a bit underpowered,IMO,which can hold him back in fast surfaces.
Some horrible stuff from kei!
Kind of willing Dom to win as he is everything Zverev isn’t…ie tons of humility…
Thiem, shockingly, was good
Hahaha!! Yes indeed Ricky! Guess he’s made Fed a happy bunny!🐇