Kei Nishikori produced a stunning performance to take down Nick Kyrgios 6-1 7-6(3) __ and reach the fourth round of Wimbledon for the third time.
However, the Japanese, 28, has never progressed beyond the last 16 and he will be hoping it is a case of third time lucky when he takes on Ernests Gulbis, who stunned 4th seed Alexander Zverev.
If he plays like he did against Kyrgios, Nishikori will have a great chance of victory on Monday. He came out with a clear game plan of attacking the Australian’s serve, and it worked perfectly in the first set.
The Japanese has some of the fastest reactions in world tennis. He used them to great effect as he read the Kyrgios serve superbly and hit a series of breathtaking returns.
This enabled Nishikori to break the Australian twice in the opening set and wrap it up in just 18 minutes.
Kyrgios improves but Nishikori is up to the challenge
But if the World No.28 expected an easy match after that, he soon found out that he was not going to get one as Kyrgios stepped up his game.
The World No.18 earned his first break of the match in game four of the second set to restore parity in the set. He then started firing down a series of huge serves that were too hot to handle – even for a returner of Nishikori’s calibre.
However, despite his best efforts, the Australian was unable to put the Japanese player’s serve under any real pressure because of how well it was delivered.
All of this eventually meant that a high-quality set would be decided by a tie-break. Predictably, it was eventful, and Kyrgios became the first player to bring the crowd to their feet with a delightful lob to move into a 3-2 lead.
Remarkably, that was the last point he won as he made a couple of errors and Nishikori hit some superb groundstrokes to go 6-3 up. The Australian then thought he had reduced the deficit with a thunderous, only to watch in horror as the Japanese player’s blocked return landed in.
Nishikori completes superb win
The standard remained high in the third set. And both players completely dominated most of their service games as the score rattled along to 5-4 in Nishikori’s favour.
Scoreboard advantage enabled the Japanese to attack in game ten. And he earned three match points with some excellent play, the best of which was a viciously-spun backhand followed by a sublime lob.
Kyrgios dug in to save all three, but Nishikori earned another when the Australian hit a forehand into the net. He then sealed the win when the World No.18 missed another forehand.
“I’m sure this was the best game in my life (on grass),” The Japanese player said in his post-match interview.
