Sixth-seeded Kei Nishikori was two games away from defeat before battling back to beat Nick Kyrgios 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
The encounter was that first time that Nishikori has played Kyrgios on the ATP World Tour as he got off to a sluggish start against a focused Austrailian, dropping the first five games of the match. The Japanese star was visibly nervous during the opening set as he produced four double faults, three of which occurred during one game, as well as ten unforced errors.
Nishikori finally regained his service consistency in the second set as he remained unbroken throughout. Kyrgios was still causing Nishikori trouble as he produced some world class shots. Neither player was capable of breaking each others serve until the business end of the set. Serving at 4-5, Kyrgios succumbed to the pressure of Nishikori for the first time of the match as the sixth seed broke to love to take the match into a decider.
The frustration of Kyrgios started to become apparent towards the end of the second set. Kyrgios began to swear and got a warning regarding an incident regarding a line judge. In the final game of the second set with Kyrgios serving. After a served was called out, he hit a ball in the direction of the line judge which lead to him receiving a warning. The umpire deemed it as dangerous. There was however no indication that his shot was intended to hit the line judge. The Austrailian is currently under a six month suspended sentence for his on court manner. In his first round match Kyrgios was fined $1500 for audible obscenities. If the fines within this six-month period accumulated to $5000, he will be suspended from the sport.
The deciding set emulated the second, with neither player able to generate a break point chance in 9 out of the ten games played. Despite the solid performance of both players’ services, there were numerous moments where there was outstanding play from both men, entertaining the Chinese crowd. Yet again at the crucial moment, Nishikori launched his offensive. As Kyrgios serve to remain in the match, Nishikori rushed to 40-15, giving himself two match points. Kyrgios responded triumphantly by saving both of them in impressive fashion. Nishikori then squandered his third match point before finally being successful with his fourth after Kyrgios hit a backhand into the net.
Throughout the thrilling match which lasted an hour and fifty-three minutes, Nishikori produced 33 winners, 26 unforced errors and six aces.
