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.
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