Kei Nishikori has reached the fourth round at the Wimbledon Championships for only the second time in his career after battling past Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov 7-5, 6-3, 7-5.
Dropping his service twice, Nishikori was able to control the match the help of his error-stricken opponent. A total of 37 unforced errors were produced by Kuznetsov, allowing Nishikori to strike at the most crucial stages of the match. Despite the straight sets win, it was far from straightforward for the world No.6, who converted only 5/10 break points.
The victory has booked Nishikori a last-16 showdown with Marin Cilic in what will be a repeat of the 2014 US Open final. Cilic fired a total of 19 aces to ease past Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
“I played really well, I played smart and aggressive,” Cilic said following his win.
“Today the third set was great tennis from me.”
Nishikori leads the head-to-head 7-3 against the Croat and has won their four most recent meetings. On the other hand, former grand slam champion Cilic has declared that he is feeling much better on the grass-court than last year.
“I would say that I’m playing pretty good, close to the baseline and trying to be aggressive as much as I can. Last year I wasn’t feeling as good as this year.” A confident Cilic told Wimbledon.com.
Alexander Zverev Finally Moves Beyond Round two
Whilst Nishikori is preparing for a last sixteen encounter, Germany’s Alexander Zverev has just won his rain-interrupted second round match against Mikhail Youzhny. Playing in the last remain second round match of the competition, the world No. 28 required almost three-and-a-half-hours to defeat Youzhny 6-4, 3-6, 6-0, 4-6, 6-2.
Next up for the Zverev will be a Sunday meeting with Tomas Berdych, a playing who he has lost to three times before. Berdych might be the favourite going into the match, but he is expecting a tough match against the German.
“With Sascha I was playing some good battles,” said 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Berdych.
“All of them went on the good side for me, but obviously he’s a young kid and he’s improving week by week.
“So it’s not going to be easy at all. The fact that he’s playing one of the first years on the grass, he’s very talented and well experienced to know how to deal with that. So that’s going to be a big one.”
Earlier in the day, Nicolas Mahut defeated his doubles partner Pierre-Hughes Herbert 7-6 (5), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
