Kei Nishikori has begun his Rogers Cup campaign with a hard fought 6-4, 7-5, win over American qualifier Denis Novikov in the second round.
The world No.6 hasn’t played a match on the tour since his retirement in the fourth round of the Wimbledon championships due to a rib injury. Returning to action in Canada, Nishikori was clearly rusty in some areas of his game. Struggling to win half of his first service points (49%), the Japanese player also produced six double faults. Nevertheless, the third seed managed to claim a straight sets victory with the help of 22 winners.
“I thought it was a good match, good enough for the first match since Wimbledon,” Nishikori told atpworldtour.com.
“I knew I was going to get ups-and-downs because I haven’t played matches in a long time and I didn’t practise much the first couple of weeks after getting injured…but it was still a good, solid match today.”
Awaiting Nishikori in the third round will be another American player, Rajeev Ram. The 32-year-old stunned rising star and 13th seed Lucas Pouille 6-4, 7-6(5), to grab a milestone win in his career. It is the first time that Ram has managed to win back-to-back main draw matches in a Masters tournament. Prior to this week Ram has only managed to win two matches in Masters tournaments since his debut in 2005.
Elsewhere at the tournament, Dominic Thiem retired after just five games during his encounter with Kevin Anderson. The sixth seed was trailing 1-4 before quitting the match due to hip pain. Speaking to the media after his press conference, the 22-year-old revealed that he suffered the injury two weeks ago and the pain has once again worsen. He will now return to Austria to rest.
Thiem wasn’t the only player to exit the tournament injured. Sam Querrey retired midway through his match against David Goffin due to a lower back injury.
Ryan Harrison has grabbed his best win of the year by stunning John Isner in a marathon encounter. The qualifier, who had only won 11 main draw matches this year before Toronto, saved three match points in the second set before winning 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 6-4. It is only the third time in Harrison’s career that he managed to reach the last-16 at a Masters 1000 event.
Finally, Australian hopeful Bernard Tomic battled his way past Canadian world No. 192 Steven Diez 6-3, 7-6(4), with the help of 14 aces. The triumph has set him up with a third round showdown against Anderson, a player who he defeated earlier this year at the Aegon Championships.
