Japan’s teenage sensation Kei Nishikori continued his top form yesterday with a straight sets victory over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez to reach the third round of the Japan Open.
The 18-year-old Nishikori, one of only two Japanese players to win an ATP title, played aggressive tennis to down the Spanish 16th seed 6-4, 6-4.
“It was really a long game at the beginning. I almost gave up. But such a long game often decides who will gain the momentum, so I tried hard on my advantage points,” said Nishikori, who reached the US Open fourth round.
PHOTO: AFP
“I tried to put pressure on him by playing chip-and-charge and getting to the net. I think it worked pretty well, because he hit a couple of double faults,” said the teenager who won at Delray Beach in February.
He is on track for a quarter-final re-match against defending champion and top seed David Ferrer, after defeating the Spaniard in the third round of the US Open last month.
But first Nishikori faces a third-round showdown against fourth seed and last year’s runner-up Richard Gasquet of France who eliminated Austrian qualifier Martin Slanar 6-4, 6-2.
Yesterday, Nishikori broke his Spanish opponent in a tough opening game that lasted 22 minutes and included 14 deuces and eight break points for the Japanese young gun.
Nishikori, ranked 84 against Garcia-Lopez’s 60, then stormed to a 5-1 lead before the Spaniard clawed his way back only for Nishikori to wrap up the set.
With the scores level at 4-4 in the second, Nishikori pulled off the only break of serve in the set before serving out for the match with a drop shot.
World No. 5 David Ferrer pulverized Jesse Levine’s serve-and-volley game to launch his campaign to defend his title yesterday.
It was a return to form for the top-seeded Spaniard, who was unceremoniously dumped in his first match in Beijing last week, scoring a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 victory over the 101st-ranked American in the second round.
“Every week is different. Today I played good. It was a very tough match. Levine has good power and I had to fight to beat him,” Ferrer said.
“I feel good. I feel better than last week. It’s important to in the first round, because sometimes it is difficult to play. I’m happy with my game today,” said Ferrer, who received a first-round bye.
After taking the first set, Ferrer hit a double fault to give Levine a 15-40 break chance, which he lost when he hit a forehand wide, and eventually it cost him the set.
But the American’s serve-and-volley game collapsed in the second game of the final set as he hit a backhand volley long at a deuce before seeing Ferrer fire a sizzling forehand passing shot to jump ahead 2-0.
Everything went perfectly afterwards for Ferrer, who allowed Levine to hold only one game and finished off the 107-minute match by hitting his fifth ace on his first match point.
Although he is chasing a place at the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, Ferrer said he was concentrating on this tournament.
Ferrer will play Takao Suzuki next after the Japanese player upset Italian 15th seed Simone Bolelli 7-6, 4-6, 7-6.
Second seed Andy Roddick also advanced to the last 16 of the tournament but the big-serving American was pushed to the limit in a 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 win over Czech Ivo Minar.
Roddick, who like Ferrer is closing in on a place in next month’s eight-man Shanghai shoot-out, struggled in his opening match three days after winning his 26th career title in Beijing.
The former US Open champion wasted three match points against Minar before coming through a third tiebreak 7-2 after more than two and a half hours.
No. 3 seed Fernando Gonzalez lost the first set of his clash against Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun before recovering to win the match.
Lu, who claimed the scalp of British top 10-ranked player Andy Murray at the Beijing Olympics, looked like he might pull off another upset when he breezed through the first set, losing only one game in the process.
Lu pushed World No. 11 Gonzalez hard in the second set before the Chilean prevailed 7-5.
The Athens Olympics bronze medalist then showed his class to win the third set 6-3 and claim his place in the third round.
French seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, this year’s Australian Open runner-up who won his first tour title in Bangkok at the weekend, beat American Bobby Reynolds 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.
Spanish sixth seed Tommy Robredo beat Australian Joseph Sirianni 6-2 6-2 to set up a meeting with ninth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych.
The 2003 champion Rainer Schuettler of Germany, the 12th seed, and 14th seed Jurgen Melzer of Austria also made the third round.
Schuettler, who has yet to claim a title since winning at Tokyo and Lyon in October 2003, edged past Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea 6-3, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, while Melzer whipped Simon Stadler of Germany 6-2, 6-3.
On the women’s side, Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan gave No. 2 seed Anabel Medina Garrigues a fright before losing their first round clash in three sets.
Chan took the first set 6-3 before the Spanish world No. 28 bounced back to take the second by the same scoreline.
Medina Garrigues then won the deciding set 6-3.
In another first round clash Australian Samantha Stosur progressed after Vania King of the US retired having lost the first set.
In second round matches seventh seed Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand and Kaia Kanepi of Estonia became the first players to reach the quarter-finals.
The seventh-seeded Tamarine powered past Camille Pin of France 6-2, 6-2, while the fifth-seeded Kanepi shrugged off a slow start to beat Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 3-6, 6-1, 6-0.
Meanwhile Jarmila Gajdosova of Slovakia beat Israeli No. 6 seed Shahar Peer 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (11/9).
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY TONY PHILLIPS
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