Nishikori Surprises Tsonga In Shanghai

Written by: Global Chick on 13th October 2011

ATP Malaysian Open tennis tournament in Kuala Lumpur

Nishikori Surprises Tsonga In Shanghai

Kei Nishikori of Japan retuns a ball to Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia during t their semi final match at the ATP Malaysian Open tennis tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 01 October 2011. EPA/AHMAD YUSNI |

Japanese youngster Kei Nishikori came back from a set down to defeat the much higher ranked Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-7 (1) 6-4 6-4 at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.

The World No. 47 also came back from a break down in the third set to move into the third round at the Shanghai Rolex Masters. World No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was disappointed by he said, “But Today I had a good opponent. Even if maybe I didn’t play with a lot of energy, I played good tennis. Today my opponent was just better than me.”

Tsonga is still positive about qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, “I have more points than all my opponents. So, of course for the moment I am confident. I will take some rest and then I will come back to qualify.”

Kei Nishikori’s third round opponent is Colombian Santiago Giraldo who downed the No. 14 seed Austrian Jurgen Melzer 4-6 6-4 7-6 (5).

Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden took out fellow qualifier Ryan Harrison of the United States in straight sets. Australia now have two players in the third round in Shanghai. Bernard Tomic caused an upset yesterday when he ousted the world number eight Mardy Fish in the second round. Ebden will go on and play tricky Frenchman Gilles Simon in the third round. Tomic will face the No.12 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov in his third round.

Czech player Tomas Berdych beat countryman Radek Stepanek 6-4 6-3 in one hour and 20 minutes. Berdych is also in desperate need to accumulate points to secure a spot at the big end of year finale in London. Berdych is currently number seven in the Battle of London race.

Berdych will meet handsome Spanish left hander Feliciano Lopez in the third round. Lopez won in three sets against Alex Bogomolov of the United States 7-6 (4) 3-6 6-3. The winner of Lopez and Berdych could potentially face world number two in the quarterfinals.

The top seed Rafael Nadal had an easy win 6-3 6-3 over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Wednesday. The Spanish number one player is looking to win his fourth title this year and his 47^th career singles title. Rafa and Florian Mayer of Germany will battle it out for a spot in the Shanghai quarterfinals. Mayer beat former world number three David Nalbandian 6- 3 6-4.

The number two seed Brit Andy Murray was given a walk over by his Russian opponent Dmitry Tursunov. The Russian didn’t even make it on the court, he withdrew with a thigh injury.

An all Spanish battle will take place when the No. 3 seed David Ferrer takes on former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero. Ferrer upset Canadian Milos Raonic 7-5 7-6 (7). Juan Carlos Ferrero won over another Spanish player Fernando Verdasco 4-6 6-3 6-2. Ferrero won six out of his seven break points today.

Two seeded teams in the doubles draw are out. US Open Champions Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner were taken out by Thomasz Bellucci and Ivan Dodig 4-6 6-7 (4) 10-8 in the second round. The Brazilian/Croatian team will face a big challenge in the third round when they take on the Indian team of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes. The Indian duo had a straight set win over Christopher Kas and Alexander Peya.

The Indo/Pak Express Rohan Bopanna and Aisan-Ul-Haq Qureshi also took a tumble in the second round. They were defeated by Nicolas Almagro and Bruno Soares. Almagro and Soares are playing together for the first time. The Indo/Pak Express need to improve their results over the next couple of weeks to be able to participate in the end of year London tournanment.

World number ones Bob and Mike Bryan started their quest for the Shanghai title yesterday with a 6-1 6-4 win over Marcel Granollers and Viktor Troicki. The twins have not won a title since they won Wimbledon in July.

Horia Tecau and Robert Lindstedt squeezed past Eric Butroac and Jean-Julien Rojer 7-6 (5) 7-5. They will now face the number three seeds Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic in the third round.

Nenad Zimonjic won his 500^th doubles win when he and partner Michael Llodra beat Italian duo Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini in the third set match tiebreak. Zimonjic said of his match winning milestone, “It’s a really nice achievement. You appreciate every win in any competition so to get to 500 match wins is amazing. I have to thank all my partners over the years.”