Nishikori Injured and Soeda left stunned by Anderson

Written by: Global Chick on 30th August 2011

Nishikori Injured and Soeda left stunned by Anderson

Japanese tennis player Kei Nishikori returns the ball to Pere Riba of Spain during their first round match at the 59th Conde de Godo Trophy tennis tournament in Barcelona, northeastern Spain, 19 April 2011. Riba retired from the match. EPA/ANDREU DALMAU |

Japanese player Kei Nishikori was two sets to love down when he had to pull out in his first round at the US Open due to injury.

Nishikori was playing Italian Flavio Cipolla, and the Italian was leading 6-4 6-2 when Nishikori’s lower back got so bad he could not continue the match.

“It started Saturday, two days ago. I practiced in the morning and start hurting and I stopped practice and it got better yesterday a little bit. Beginning was okay today but the pain was increasing every point and I had to retire,” Nishikori said.

The young Japanese player said the injury was related to a tough match schedule last week at the Winston Salem Open where he qualified and won a couple of matches in the main draw. He had a sore shoulder for a month before Cincinnati and decided to play the Winston Salem Open to gain some match practice, which proved to be a bad idea for him.

Flavio Cipolla will play the No. 22 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine in the second round. Dolgopolov had a straight sets win over Frederico Gil of Portugal 6-4 6-2 7-5.

Nishikori’s fellow countryman Go Soeda was crushed in three sets by South African Kevin Anderson 6-1 6-3 6-0. Anderson is currently ranked No. 34 and is playing his second US Open. Last year the South African reached the third round here.

Anderson hit nine aces today and won 83 per cent of his first service points. Anderson completed his first round win in one hour and 38 minutes.

Next up for the big serving Anderson is France’s Michael Llodra, who had a battle today with Romanian Victor Hanescu. The No. 29 seed had to fight hard to win 6-4 4-6 4-6 6-3 6-2. The Frenchman served eleven aces in five sets.