Sixth seed Kei Nishikori was forced to produce some of his best tennis on Wednesday to subdue the baseline power of Diego Schwartzman at the Mutua Madrid Open. In a high-quality encounter, belying the scoreline of the first two sets, Nishikori recorded his 15th match win at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament, with a 1-6, 6-0, 6-4 victory in two hours.
Nishikori, the 2014 runner-up (l. to Nadal), drew on his reserves to come through a 22-point first service game and led 3-1 in the deciding set, before Schwartzman made a comeback. Nishikori, who had defeated Schwartzman over three sets at the Argentina Open in February, could not convert four match point opportunities at 5-3, but one game later he sealed victory with a backhand winner down the line.
“It was a very tough one,” said Nishikori. “He’s obviously playing very well, very solid from baseline. He was very aggressive in the first set. But in the second set, I started grinding a little more and played a little smarter. I have to say I was a little bit lucky. There was a couple of net cords and balls hitting the lines. Sometimes, I need some luck to win. I'm very happy with my tennis in the second and third sets.”
The Japanese star advances to meet David Ferrer, whose wait to record his 700th match win carries over to Thursday after his second-round opponent, 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, withdrew ahead of their match due to a right shoulder injury. “I stretched a muscle in my shoulder [and] I don't want to take any risks,” admitted Tsonga. “It's something I did, I think, last week in practice.”
Nishikori leads Ferrer 8-4 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. “I have a great rivalry with David,” said Nishikori. “We’ve played so many great matches, long matches. I always love to play him, because I can challenge myself. I know it's going to be tough one again. So I will try to prepare well, and hopefully I can win the match.”
Fifth seed Milos Raonic struck 10 aces and lost just seven of his service points to knock out last week’s Millennium Estoril Open finalist Gilles Muller. Raonic, who also beat Muller at the Australian Open in January, is now 15-3 on the season and goes on to challenge ninth seed David Goffin.
