Milos Raonic and Kei Nishikori won their opening matches on Friday to put Canada and Japan level at 1-1 and set themselves up for a blockbuster Davis Cup clash.
Canadian No. 1 Raonic, ranked sixth in the world, got the World Group first-round tie off to a smooth start for the hosts, overpowering the 85th-ranked Tatsuma Ito 6-2, 6-1, 6-2.
The Canadian converted six of his seven break chances, breaking Ito twice in each set to wrap up the opener in 1 hour, 27 minutes.
Photo: EPA
Raonic fired 17 aces and never faced a break point.
Last year’s US Open runner-up and world No. 4 Nishikori found the going a bit tougher against Vasek Pospisil, but leveled the tie with a 6-4, 7-6(7/5), 6-3 win in 2 hours, 19 minutes.
Nishikori gained the only break of the first set and served it out with an ace.
In the second, Nishikori edged Pospisil in a see-saw tiebreaker, but after breaking the Canadian in the sixth game of the third, Nishikori surrendered his own serve in the next game with a wayward forehand.
Nishikori regained the break in the eighth game, as Pospisil coughed up a double-fault on break point, putting Nishikori in position to serve out the match with a love game — sealing it with another ace on the final point.
“It was a tough three sets,” Nishikori said. “I think every set was really close, especially the second set. It was a really tight, up and down tiebreaker and I took some risks with my return.”
Nishikori trailed 0-2 in that tiebreaker, and once he had rallied to win that, he was more relaxed, he said.
“I played a really solid match today,” Nishikori said.
In other results, it was:
‧ Britain 2, United States 0
‧ Serbia 2, Croatia 0
‧ Kazakhstan 1, Italy 1
‧ Belgium 1, Switzerland 1
‧ Germany 0, France 2
‧ Czech Republic 0, Australia 2
‧ Argentina 1, Brazil 1
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