Kei Nishikori beat Andrei Kuznetsov 6-3 6-3 6-3 to reach the third round at Roland Garros where he will face Fernando Verdasco who cruised past Ivan Dodig 6-2 6-1 6-3. The Spanish player leads 2-1 in their head-to-head matches. Nishikori fired 31 winners to 18 unforced errors and converted six of his eight break point chances.
Kuznetsov earned the first break of the match in the fourth game of the opening set to take a 3-1 lead but Nishikori broke back in the sixth game to draw level to 3-3 before getting another break in the eighth game to open up a 5-3 lead. Nishikori got a double break in the fifth game for 3-2 and in the seventh game for 5-2.
Kuznetsov got one of the two breaks back for 3-5 but Nishikori broke again in the next game to seal the second set. Nishikori broke once in the third set in the sixth game for 4-2 to close out the match in 1 hour and 48 minutes.
Nishikori achieved his best result at Roland Garros when he reached the quarter final last year, losing to Jo Wilfried Tsonga in five sets. Earlier this year the Japanese star reached the final in Barcelona and the semifinals in Madrid and Rome.
