History-making Kei Nishikori was dumped out of the Shanghai Masters yesterday by American Sam Querrey, as defending champion Andy Murray was handed a walkover into the third round.
The tall American recovered from losing the first set to seal a 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Nishikori, who made history on Sunday by becoming the first Japanese player to win the Japan Open.
Top seed Roger Federer, playing his first tournament on the Tour since a quarter-final defeat to Tomas Berdych at the US Open, took on Taiwanese qualifier Lu Yen-hsun in an evening clash. Federer beat Lu 6-3, 7-5.
Photo: AFP
Also in second-round action, second seed Novak Djokovic cruised through his tournament opener and there were wins for fourth seed Tomas Berdych and 13th seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.
Nishikori said he had needed treatment during the match on his right ankle, which had been bothering him since last week.
“I tried to play, but he had a good serve,” he said. “I broke him first in the third set, but couldn’t finish the match. It’s disappointing, but I was close to win with this injury. Nothing I can do,” he said.
The 22-year-old Japanese romped into a 4-0 lead and sealed the opener despite a medical timeout late in the set.
However, a missed overhead early in the second set contributed to an early break for Querrey and the Japanese 14th seed lost his rhythm, showing his frustration as his rejuvenated opponent, ranked 22nd, leveled the match.
In the third set two breaks of serve proved costly for Nishikori, who is at a career high of No. 15 in the rankings after his weekend win over Canada’s Milos Raonic, his first on the Tour since 2008.
Nishikori, who last year reached the semi-finals in Shanghai, losing to eventual champion Andy Murray, said his success in front of home fans had given him confidence despite the pressure to succeed.
“I have to handle pressure always, especially when you get a higher ranking and you play with the lower-ranking players,” he said.
“Yeah, it’s going to be there, for sure, the pressure, but, you know, I have to play one match at a time, and hopefully my ranking will go up,” he added.
Djokovic, who has a shot at regaining the world No. 1 ranking if he wins the title and Federer loses before the quarter-finals, dismissed Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 6-2.
However, US Open champion Andy Murray did not even have to take to the court as Germany’s Florian Mayer withdrew with a rib injury.
“I’ll practice again. I mean, you never know whether it’s a good or a bad thing. I mean, you’re obviously prepared to play the match,” Murray said.
“Yeah, sometimes it happens when you get a walkover. You just need to make sure you do enough practice and stay sharp,” he added.
As the season draws toward to a close there are four places still up for grabs at next month’s season-ending World Tour Finals in London. The top three have all qualified, along with the injured Rafael Nadal.
JAPAN OPEN
AP, OSAKA, Japan
The top-seeded Samantha Stosur advanced to the quarter-finals of the Japan Open by beating Virginie Razzano of France 1-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan defeated Casey Dellacqua of Australia 7-6, 6-3 and to advance to the quarter-finals, where she is scheduled to face the eighth-seeded Laura Robson of Britain.
Stosur, last year’s US Open champion, rallied after having her serve broken three times in the first set at the Utsubo Tennis Center. Razzano had 10 double-faults.
The Australian is scheduled to next face Jamie Hampton in the quarter-finals.
The American defeated wild-card entry Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand 7-5, 7-5.
Also, Japanese qualifier Misaki Doi beat Olga Puchkova of Russia 6-3, 6-2 and is scheduled to next take on Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa.
Additional reporting by Staff reporter
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier