The Japanese world number 42 is through to the second round after beating the Canadian in straight sets.
Kei Nishikori is through to the second round of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament being held at the Ahoy in Rotterdam after beating him in straight sets 7-6, and 6-1. Nishikori was a perfect 2 for 2 on breakpoints and his first serve percentage for the match was 74%.
A competitive first set :
Both players did a good job holding their serve in the opening games of the match and we didn’t see a breakpoint until the Canadian had a chance to break but it was saved the Japanese player and he managed to hold serve.
The first set would be decided by a tiebreaker and again it was the world number 42 who got off to the better start breaking the Montreal native with a stunning return winner to take an early 1-0 lead.
After that it stayed on serve until 4-2 when the Canadian broke back to go back on serve after forcing the error from Nishikori but would ultimately give it back at 4-4 when he sent a ball long.
The world number 42 would serve out the breaker and take the first set 7-6 one set away from upsetting the number 7 seed.
One way traffic for Nishikori
After holding his opening service game the world number 19 took a medical timeout as he appeared to pull or injure his knee and that seemed to hamper his play.
Nishikori earned three more breakpoints the very next game as the number seven seed was hitting errors left and right and the injury was in fact hampering his movement.
He would break as Auger Aliassime would send a return long to take an early 2-0 lead and at 4-1 had more chances to break and he would do just that with a sublime forehand winner to make it 5-1.
He would serve out the match to take it in straight sets and will either face Alex De Minaur or John Millman in the next round.
Day 1 results
In the opening match of the day session Cameron Norrie beat Nikoloz Basilashvili in straight sets 6-0, and 6-3 while two more matches are to come in the night session which will feature Andy Murray take on the home favorite Robin Haase while Marton Fucsovics a qualifier will take on the American Reilly Opelka.
