Japan’s Kei Nishikori has praised Roger Federer’s performance in his first tournament for over a year.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion returned to competition last Wednesday at the Qatar Open in what was his first tournament since January 2020. Federer has been sidelined from the Tour due to a right knee injury which required two surgical procedures. In Doha he got off to a winning start by defeating Dan Evans in three sets before losing to Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili who went on to win the title.
Speaking about the Swiss Maestro following his first round win at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Sunday, Nishikori described him as a ‘monster’ in the sport. The world No.40 has also experienced his fair share of injury setbacks in recent months with a troublesome elbow injury hampering him last year.
“He is a monster in a good way,” Nishikori told reporters. “He played two solid matches, that was unexpected. He played a pretty good game. Of course, having been one year off he was a little bit off, you know. But he still played great. Not everybody could do that.”
The 31-year-old has played Federer 11 times on the Tour but has only won three of their encounters. The most recent of which was at the 2018 ATP Finals in London. He has scored more wins over Federer than any other member of the Big Three.
Despite his losing record against the former world No.1, Nishikori hopes they will be able to continue their rivalry in the future as he tips Federer to be a Grand Slam title contender once again at the age of 39.
“Hopefully he can come back strong and hope we can play couple matches, you know, on the courts,” he said. “I always enjoyed playing against him and I’m sure he can come back winning Slams again.”
Nishikori battled back from a set down to defeat Reilly Opelka 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the opening round in Dubai. Making it only the third match he has won this season following his run to the quarter-finals in Rotterdam.
“I played a very solid match today,” Nishikori reflected afterwards. “I tried to focus on my first service game because I knew there wouldn’t be many chances on my return game. I tried to make my first serve and I think I did quite enough. I surprised myself how I returned well on break points.”
In the second round Nishikori will take on fifth seed David Goffin.
