TENNIS ATP TOKYO – Kei Nishikori beat Jeremy Chardy 6-4 6-2 in 86 points to qualify for the semifinal of the Rakuten Japan Open in Tokyo in front of his home fans at the Ariake Coliseum. Diego Sampaolo
Nishikori, who won three titles in Barcelona, Memphis and Kuala Lumpur and finished runner-up at the US Open, is currently ranked sixth in the ATP Race to London, just 45 points behind Marin Cilic who lost his quarter final against Andy Murray in Beijing Chardy posed a serious challenge to Nishikori in the first set when he took a 2-0 lead but wasted a four game-point in a very long third game featuring 12 points. Chardy wasted a 40-15 lead at 4-4. This took its toll on Chardy as Nishikori reeled off seven of his eight games and got a double break to cruise to a 4-1 lead.
Nishikori hit six aces and won 80 percent of his service points. He will take on Benjamin Becker, who fought back from a set down to battle past Jack Sock 4-6 6-1 6-4.
Milos Raonic overcame Denis Istomin 7-6 (10-8) 6-3 to advance to the semifinals and moved up to World Number 8 in the ATP Race to London overtaking David Ferrer.
Raonic faced a stiff challenge in the tie-break of the first set where he failed to convert two set points at 6-5 and 8-7 and fended off a set point at 6-7 with a forehand winner. Istomin made a double fault at 8-8 before Raonic converted his third set point to clinch a hard-fought tie-break after 47 minutes.
The young Canadian broke to 15 in the 8th game to take a 5-3 lead.
He set up a semifinal match against Frenchman Giles Simon who had to fend off two set points against Steve Johnson at 4-5 15-40 after leading 4-2 in the first lead. Simon went on to win the tie-break with 7-4 before cruising to a 6-1 win in the second set. Earlier this week Simon faced very tough matches, especially in the first round where he had to fend off six match points against Roberto Bautista Agut and in the second round where he had to fight back from a set down and a 2-4 deficit against Gilles Muller.
