Kei Nishikori Reaches Quarters Of Malaysian Open

Written by: Resendiz on 30th September 2011

Tennis Conde de Godo Trophy in Barcelona

Kei Nishikori Reaches Quarters Of Malaysian Open

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 |

The number eight seed Kei Nishikori of Japan has moved into the quarterfinals of Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur today with a win over Germany’s Philipp Petzschner 6-3 4-6 7-5.

The World No. 54 was the hero when he won both his Davis Cup singles matches when Japan played India in the World Group Playoffs. Nishikori now takes on top seed Spaniard Nicolas Almagro who defeated fellow countryman Albert Ramos 7-6 (2) 7-6 (4). World number eleven Almagro needs to win a few more matches to have a chance to qualify for the end-of-year Barclays World Tour Finals in London.

Second seed Viktor Troicki made short work of Uzbekistani Denis Istomin winning in one hour and 19 minutes 6-1 6-4. “The first set I played pretty good, controlling that part of the match. The second set was pretty equal. I was just a bit more focused at the end to make a break to win the match. I’m happy to be in the quarterfinals,” Troicki said The Serbian will take on Russian Dmitry Tursunov in the quarterfinals.

Another successful Serbian today was the number three seed Janko Tipasrevic who cruised past Flavio Cipolla of Italy 6-2 6-4. Cipolla had a great opening round win over talented Bernard Tomic. Tipsarevic is also looking to improve his chances this week to qualify for the Barclays World Tour Finals. His next round opponent former world number three Nikolay Davydenko of Russia is not going to be an easy win.

Davydenko fought hard to shake off Lukasz Kubot of Poland 6-3 7-6 (2). “At 5-2 down in the second set, I was already thinking about the third set. I was just fighting for the points and was able to come back and win it in two sets. Sometimes it happens that way,” Davydenko said.

In the bottom half the doubles draw the second seeds Eric Butorac and Jean-Julien Rojer downed Lukas Dlouhy and Marcelo Melo winning 10-3 in the third set match tiebreak. They will meet Americans Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram in the semi-final. Lipsky and Ram were too good for Aussie team Matthew Ebden and Bernard Tomic and won in straight sets 6-2 6-3.

The top half semi-final will be played between the US Open Champions Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner and Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek. The top seeded Austrian/German team breezed into the semis with a win over British duo Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins. Cermak and Polasek had to work a little harder winning in a match tiebreak against Martin Emmrich and Andreas Siljestrom.

SCHEDULE – FRIDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER, 2011

CENTER COURT start 2:15 pm

[7] D Tursunov (RUS) vs [2] V Troicki (SRB)

Not Before 4:30 PM

[WC] M Baghdatis (CYP) vs [4] J Melzer (AUT)

Not Before 6:30 PM

[3] J Tipsarevic (SRB) vs [5] N Davydenko (RUS)

Not Before 7:15 PM

[1] N Almagro (ESP) vs [8] K Nishikori (JPN)