Two-time defending champion Kei Nishikori rallied to get past US qualifier Ryan Harrison on Wednesday to book his quarter-final spot at the ATP Memphis Open.
The Japanese top seed, who reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open last month, gained a key early break in the third set and finally secured the 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win on his fourth match point.
“It was a tight game, but I’m really happy to win,” the 25-year-old said.
Nishikori, who enjoyed a first-round bye before opening his title defense against Harrison, said he feels like Memphis is “becoming my tournament.”
“I know it’s not easy to defend titles, but I think mentally I’m ready,” he said.
Nevertheless, Nishikori said he would have to play better in the quarter-finals, where he faces another American qualifier, Austin Krajicek.
Krajicek, who survived two match points in a first-round win over Mikhail Kukushkin, toppled fifth-seeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 6-4.
Krajicek withstood a barrage of 32 aces from last year’s runner-up, but served 14 of his own.
“It was a great match,” Krajicek said. “Obviously, Ivo has an amazing serve, so you don’t have a whole lot of chances. I played a really good tiebreak in the first set — I tried to take what I could control, and I just got a little lucky there at the end.”
Third-seeded American John Isner pounded 22 aces in a 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) victory over Croatian Ivan Dodig.
Isner next faces compatriot Sam Querrey, who needed only 57 minutes to get past Jared Donaldson 6-4, 6-1.
ROTTERDAM
Top-seeded Andy Murray made a solid start to his Rotterdam campaign with a 6-3, 6-2 win over French qualifier Nicolas Mahut on Wednesday, while Stan Wawrinka was made to work three sets by a 248th-ranked wild card.
Facing local favorite Jesse Huta Galung, the fourth-seeded Wawrinka struggled with his serve in the second set and was broken twice before recovering to post a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory in his first match at Rotterdam in 10 years.
A semifinalist at the Australian Open, Wawrinka next plays Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who defeated Denis Istomin 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.
Murray, who played his first match since losing to Novak Djokovic in Melbourne, saved five of the six break points he faced.
The Australian Open runner-up had a dip in concentration while serving for the match at 5-0, when Mahut finally broke him, but the 2009 champion held on his next service game.
“I was pleased with my high level,” Murray said. “It was a match with two players with different game types.”
Andrea Seppi, who was runner-up in Zagreb last week, also advanced to the second round, with a 6-7 (7/5), 6-3, 6-3 win over wild card Robin Haase to set up a match against defending champion Tomas Berdych.
Frenchman Gael Monfils, who admitted earlier this season to being undermined by personal problems, served nine aces to upset seventh-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut 7-5, 7-6 (7/5). He was joined in the quarterfinals by Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky, who defeated Dominic Thiem 6-1, 6-3.
<>BRAZIL OPEN
Three-time Brazil Open champion Nicolas Almagro defeated second-seeded Tommy Robredo 6-3, 7-6 (7/1) in the tournament’s second round on Wednesday.
Almagro served 10 aces and had no double faults in the match between Spaniards at the claycourt tournament in Sao Paulo.
The unseeded Almagro won the tournament in 2008, 2011 and 2012. Robredo, ranked 17th in the world, won the title in 2009.
In other second-round matches, fourth-seeded Leonardo Mayer of Argentina defeated Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, while lucky loser Facundo Bagnis of Argentina, who beat defending champion Federico Delbonis in the first round, retired while trailing in the first set 5-1 to fifth-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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