TENNIS FRENCH OPEN – Kei Nishikori is having a most bizarre year. The 24-year-old has finally made it into the top 10 solidifying his status as one of the premier young stars on the tour, but now finds himself packing for home after losing to Klizan 7-6, 6-1, 6-2. Cordell Hackshaw
Interviews, Results, OOP, Draws from the Roland Garros
Kei Nishikori (9) is having a most bizarre year. The 24-year-old has finally made it into the top 10 solidifying his status as one of the premier young stars on the tour. He is playing some of the best tennis of his life but his body is betraying him in the big moments. In Miami he beat Roger Federer for the 2nd consecutive time but had to withdraw from the semifinal matchup against Novak Djokovic. He won Barcelona and got to the final of Madrid but had to retire from the match in the 3rd set against Rafael Nadal. He arrived in Paris with a lot of steam behind him and the probability of getting to the Round of 16, equaling last year’s effort, but now finds himself packing for home. Martin Klizan of Slovakia took out the Japanese number 1 in straight sets 7-6(4) 6-1 6-2. “It’s tough for me, but I guess this is my tennis life, you know. I have to take care of my body and injury will come again, for sure. So I have to mentally, you know, be ready. I have to do whatever, you know, I can do to get healthy” stated Nishikori after the match.
It was clear from the opening game that Nishikori was not 100% as Klizan broke for an early 2-0 lead. Nishikori came back and won five of the next six games. He served for the set 5-3 but Klizan broke back and held serve for 5-5. Though ranked 59th in the world, Klizan is not to be overlooked. He recently won the Munich tournament beating Tommy Haas (16) and Fabio Fognini (14) en route to the title. Sensing the vulnerability of his opponent, Klizan turned up the intensity and forced the issue to a tiebreaker where he took it 7-4 points.
Klizan only needed this 1st set under his belt to then take complete control of the match. Nishikori showed recently that he can play with the greatest of all left-handed players, Nadal. However, it was the lesser lefty player in the form of Klizan who proved to be too much for him. The quality of play in the 1st set was very even as both players had a similar winner to error ratio; Klizan being 10:18 and Nishikori 9:21. Their serving statistics were negligible. The 2nd and 3rd sets were different matters altogether. Klizan was simply relentless, dogging Nishikori on every service game breaking him four times and never once facing break points on his own serve. Nishikori looked winded and no longer able to construct points in an effective manner. He committed 19 errors in those two sets compared to 9 from Klizan. Klizan opened up the court with that lefty swinging forehand for the easy put away shots. Klizan took the 2nd set in 27 minutes 6-1 and then raced out to a 5-1 lead in the 3rd. Soon, Klizan had match point and closed it out 7-6 6-1 6-2.
In the press conference, Nishikori spoke of the lack of practice since Madrid as one of the factors for his loss: “I didn’t have much practice. First time playing points after Madrid, so I didn’t have much rhythm. And also serve, I didn’t hit any serve 100%, you know, before today.” He added “I was really disappointed with my performance…I was playing well on clay in Europe, so it’s very sad for me to lose first round here.” However, Nishikori remains hopeful despite this loss. He is very happy with the progress of his game this year so far as well as his partnership with new coach, 1989 French Open Champion, Michael Chang. Klizan on the other hand will face Robin Haase in the 2nd round.
