TENNIS ATP Madrid – World Number 12 Kei Nishikori, who won his fifth tournament and the first on clay in Barcelona two weeks ago, made a winning debut beating Croatia’s Ivan Dodig in straight sets with 6-4 6-4 in the first round of the Mutua Open in Madrid, the second Master 1000 tournament on clay of the year. Diego Sampaolo
Interviews, results, order of play and draws of the Mutua Madrid Open
Nishikori will be looking to improve last year’s result at the Caja Magica where he upset Roger Federer en route to reaching the quarter final (losing to Pablo Andujar).
In the first set the Japanese player fended off two break points. In the second set he broke serve twice to close out on the second match point. Nishikori now leads 2-1 against Dodig
In the second round Nishikori will face Spanish wild-card Guillermo Garcia Lopez, who won the Casablanca title and reached the quarter final in Monte-Carlo where he beat Tomas Berdych before losing to Novak Djokovic.
“I started well. I broke his serve in the first game. He is not easy to play. He has a great serve and he comes to the net sometimes. I played really well. There was just one bad game, on my serve at 3-2 in the second set. Otherwise, it was a good match”, said Nishikori.
“My win over Roger is the best memory I have from last year in Madrid. I was very happy and am trying to do well again this year”, said Nishikori.
In the other first round matches Jo Wilfred Tsonga edged Edouard Roger Vasselin in a all-French match in three tough sets with 6-4 4-6 6-3.
Tsonga played a good first set with a good record of first serve points but he made two double faults at 40-0 in the second game of the second set and dropped serve to go down 0-2. Roger Vasselin stormed to a 5-0 lead but Tsonga clawed his way back by winning four consecutive games for 4-5. Tsonga dropped his serve in the tenth game to lose the second set. Roger Vasselin called a medical time-out to treat his back at 2-1 in the third set before Tsonga secured the third set with 6-3
Tsonga extended his lead to 5-0 in his head-to-head matches against Roger Vasselin. Tsonga won his 298th match on Tour to move to within two victories of the 300 milestone match win. He will face either recent Barcelona finalist Santiago Giraldo or Australian former World Number 1 Lleyton Hewitt.
John Isner took the only break of the match to beat Teymuraz Gabashvili 7-6(8) 6-4.
