Nishikori Murray Lopez and Ferrer in SF in Shanghai

Written by: Global Chick on 15th October 2011

ATP Malaysian Open tennis tournament in Kuala Lumpur

Nishikori Murray Lopez and Ferrer in SF 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 |

Japan’s Kei Nishikori has continued his great form at the Shanghai Rolex Masters 2011 with a win over Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-4 6-3. Nishikori has now advanced to his first ATP Tour Masters semi-final.

When the rankings come out on Monday the 21-year-old will be the highest ever ranked male player from Japan. The last Japanese player to have a good ranking was Shuzo Matsuoka who was ranked No. 46 in 1992. “I feel like home here. It means a lot to play semis here. I’m really excited,” Nishikori said.

Smoking hot Andy Murray is looking to win three tournaments in the row. He won the PTT Thailand Open and the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in the last two weeks. On Friday he defeated Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden 6-3 6-2 to advance into the semi-finals and set up a clash with Kei Nishikori.

The Australian was not without chances in yesterday’s match against Murray where he had a couple of breakpoints. Murray who won the match in 85 minutes said, “I feel like I can play better. I served well so far. But I think I can hit the ball a bit better from the back of the court.”

The winner of the semi-final of the bottom half of the singles draw will face either Feliciano Lopez or David Ferrer in the final. Feliciano Lopez downed Florian Mayer 6-2 6-4 in just over one hour. Lopez broke Mayer three times during the match. Mayer had a surprise win over Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals.

Lopez said of his next opponent, “I think it’s going to be a very tough match against Ferrer. David is a top player right now this moment, so I know it’s going to be tough to beat him,”

David Ferrer and Andy Roddick battled for two hours and 30 minutes for a spot in the Shanghai semi-finals. The Spaniard eventually came out as the winner in three sets 6-7 (5) 6-2 7-6 (2). Ferrer is looking to reach his sixth final of the year if he defeats his countryman tomorrow. The World No. 5 has won the Auckland and Acapulco tournaments this year.

Ferrer said, “I have more confidence with my first serve. This tournament, in the important moments I’ve served really good.”

The Bryan Brothers were ousted by Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski yesterday in the doubles. The Poles won 12-10 in the third set match tiebreak. They will now meet with the number three seeds Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic in the semi-finals. Llodra and Zimonjic had an equally tough match against Horia Tecau and Robert Lindstedt winning 10-7 in the match tiebreak.

Indian duo Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes won in straight sets over Thomaz Bellucci and Ivan Dodig in their quarterfinals 6-3 6-4. Their semi-final opponents will be Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor who breezed past Nicolas Almagro and Bruno Soares 6-2 6-2.

SCHEDULE – SATURDAY, 15 OCTOBER, 2011

STADIUM start 2:00 pm

[4] M Bhupathi (IND) / L Paes (IND) vs [2] M Mirnyi (BLR) / D Nestor (CAN)

Not Before 4:30 PM

F Lopez (ESP) vs [3] D Ferrer (ESP)

Not Before 8:00 PM

K Nishikori (JPN) vs [2] A Murray (GBR)

GRANDSTAND start 3:30 pm

[6] M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) vs [3] M Llodra (FRA) / N Zimonjic (SRB)