Kei Nishikori/Dominic Thiem scored the first major doubles upset of 2017 on Tuesday at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp, shocking second seeds and reigning ATP Finals champions Henri Kontinen/John Peers, 1-6, 6-3, 12-10. Nishikori/Thiem saved a match point on their serve at 8/9 in the Match Tie-break, but Kontinen/Peers did the same on their own serve at 9/10. The Japanese-Austrian pair regrouped to grab a mini-break and close out the battle in one hour and 49 minutes. The Japanese star’s three career-best ATP World Tour doubles performances have all come in Brisbane. Nishikori was a runner-up in 2015 (w/Dologpolov) and a semi-finalist in 2013 and 2015 (w/Dimitrov). Thiem reached his first ATP World Tour doubles final last July in...
A traditional coaching drill on practice courts all over the world is to play points with just one serve. It creates instant pressure as players develop their prowess hitting second serves, and also attacking them at will on the return. Coaches may as well name it the “Kei Nishikori Drill”. Nishikori won more matches in 2016 than in any other year of his illustrious career, going 58-21 and finishing No. 5 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Dominating the second-serve landscape was his specialty. An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of the Japanese star uncovered just how much his game elevated when points started with second serves instead of first serves. Nishikori won 72 per cent of his first-serve points...
Continuing our Season In Review Series, ATPWorldTour.com revisits the biggest ATP World Tour comebacks of 2016: 3) Kei Nishikori d. Gael Monfils 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) – Miami quarter-finals Kei Nishikori left his comfort zone on an oppressively hot and muggy day in Key Biscayne by finding a way to come through one of the matches of 2016 on the ATP World Tour. At the end, his shirt saturated, he embraced Gael Monfils following a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) victory for a place in the semi-finals of the Miami Open presented by Itau. After saving five match points in the two-and-a-half-hour contest, sixth seed Nishikori admitted, “When I was down 4-5, love-40, I thought it was going to be it. It was...
5. Kei Nishikori d. Andy Murray 1-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5/QF/US Open To some, Andy Murray was the favourite, the pick to win his second US Open and claim back-to-back Grand Slam championships during the second half of 2016. The Scot, who had won his second Wimbledon title in July, was certainly playing like a top contender in New York. Before his quarter-final against Kei Nishikori, Murray had gone 26-1 since his first match at The Queen's Club in London, where he'd won a record fifth title. Some doubted his main competition as well. World No. 1 Novak Djokovic had endured an up-and-down July and August. The Serbian had lost in the third round at Wimbledon and in the first...