Nishikori and Isner march on at the Winston Salem Open

Written by: Global Chick on 24th August 2011

Nishikori and Isner march on at the Winston Salem Open

John Isner of the USA serves to Nicolas Almagro of Spain during their second round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 23 June 2011. EPA/GEOFF CADDICK |

Japanese number one Kei Nishikori took out the number twelve seed Pablo Andujar of Spain 7-6 (3) 6-2 in the second round of the Winston Salem Open today.

The 21-year-old Japanese player is currently ranked No. 48 on the ATP Tour singles ranking. His opponent today was ranked two spots higher. Last week in Cincinnati he qualified and lost in the first round to Argentinian David Nalbandian. His best results this year have been one final in Houston, TX (l. Ryan Sweeting). The youngster also reached two semi-finals in ATP Tour level tournaments, once in Delray Beach and the latest just before Wimbledon in Eastbourne.

Nishikori will face Juan Monaco of Argentina in the third round. Monaco overcame Tobias Kamke of Germany 7-5 6-0.

American John Isner was pushed into a tiebreak in the first set by his opponent Dudi Sela of Israel. The second set was a much easier affair with Isner winning 6-2. The big serving American will play the winner of Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan and Finn Jarkko Nieminen, who is seeded number thirteen.

The number eight seed Marcos Baghdatis third round opponent will be Steve Darcis of Belgium, who battled past the number eleven seed Dmitry Tursunov 3-6 6-1 6-3 in one hour and 42 minutes.

Former World No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko made short work of American qualifier Michael Russell. Davydenko reached the third round with a 6-2 6-2 win over Russell. The Russian faces the winner of Andrey Golubev and Sergiy Stakhovsky.

French qualifier Julien Benneteau knocked out the number sixteen seed Igor Kunitsyn 6-3 6-1. The Frecnhman sets up a third round clash with Igor Andreev, who took out second seed Jurgen Melzer yesterday.

Both top seeded doubles teams are out of the competition at Winston Salem Open this week. The latest team to crash out was Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq, who were the number one seeds. They lost to Lukas Dlouhy and Horia Tecau 6-4 6-4.

Yesterday the second seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski were taken out by Brit Colin Fleming and American Scott Lipsky in a third set match tiebreak.

Former World No 1 and Wimbledon Champion Lleyton Hewitt made an early exit out of this week’s competition. Hewitt lost to World No. 81 Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia 6-4 7-6 (7-3). The Australian was given a wildcard into the Winston Salem Open.

Hewitt, who has dropped to 165 on the ATP Tour singles ranking is still suffering from a foot injury he has lived with this whole year. Hewitt said, “I’m still struggling a little bit with the foot. I knew he was a good competitor coming into the match.”

Lleyton Hewitt has decided to pull out of the US Open next week. Hewitt won the US Open in 2001. The Aussie’s manager David Drysdale said, “It was a gut-wrenching decision for Lleyton, particularly given it is the 10-year anniversary since he won the tournament.”