Nishikori stuns Almagro in Malaysia

Written by: Resendiz on 30th September 2011

Nishikori stuns Almagro in Malaysia

Kei Nishikori of Japan returns to Lleyton Hewitt of Australia during their first round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 21 June 2011. EPA/FELIPE TRUEBA |

The number eight seed Kei Nishikori of Japan has caused an upset by taking out the top seed Nicolas Almagro of Spain in the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur. Nishikori won in three sets 6-7 (5) 6-4 6-4 and will now play Janko Tipsarevic in the semi-final on Saturday.

Nishikori has also reached the semi-finals of two other tournaments this year, Delray Beach and Eastbourne. He was also the finalist in Houston earlier in the year. The 21-year-old is currently ranked No. 54. His semi-final opponent Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia moved into the semi-final after his opponent Russian Nikolay Davydenko retired with a hip injury. The Serbian was leading 3-1 in the first set when Davydenko pulled the pin, “I don’t know what the injury is exactly yet. I’m a bit scared as I’ve never had anything like it before. I will still go to Beijing, maybe wait a few days and see what the pain is like. It’s a shame. I always enjoy this tournament and I hope to come back again in the future,” Davydenko said.

The semi-final in the bottom half of the draw will be between Cypriot wildcard Marcos Baghdatis and Serbian number two seed Viktor Troicki. Baghdatis defeated Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-3 7-6 (3). Baghdatis is in his second ATP Tour semi-final for the season. The former top ten player broke serve once today to win the first set. He completely dominated the second set tiebreak to win the match.

Viktor Troicki derailed Dmitry Tursunov 6-4 6-4. “We both returned pretty well, that’s why there were maybe more breaks than usual. My focus went down a bit maybe at the end of the second set, but it was good to close it out in two sets,” Troicki said.

US Open Champions Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petszschner will face Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek in the top half semi-final on Saturday. In the bottom half the number four seeds Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram of United States will battle with Eric Butorac and Jean-Julien Rojer for a spot in Sunday’s final.

SCHEDULE – SATURDAY, 1 OCTOBER, 2011  CENTER COURT start 2:15 pm

[WC] M Baghdatis (CYP) vs [2] V Troicki (SRB)

Not Before 4:15 PM

[8] K Nishikori (JPN) vs [3] J Tipsarevic (SRB)

[1] J Melzer (AUT) / P Petzschner (GER) vs [3] F Cermak (CZE) / F Polasek (SVK)

[4] S Lipsky (USA) / R Ram (USA) vs [2] E Butorac (USA) / J Rojer (AHO)