This Time, Nishikori Avoids The Drama

Kei Nishikori skipped the fifth-set drama on Saturday and advanced to the fourth round of the Australian Open for the seventh time.

The eighth seed, who had played two five-setters to start the tournament, swept Portugal’s Joao Sousa 7-6(6), 6-1, 6-2 to setup a round of 16 contest with Italy’s Fabio Fognini or Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta.

Both Nishikori and Sousa came through two five-setters to make the third round. Nishikori came back from two sets down against Polish qualifier Kamil Majchrzak and outlasted Croatian Ivo Karlovic in a fifth-set Match Tie-break.

Sousa overcame Argentina’s Guido Pella and Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany. But it was Nishikori who had more left in the tank in Margaret Court Arena. The Japanese right-hander, who’s made the quarter-finals three times (2012, 2015, 2016), won nearly 80 per cent of his first-serve points (40/52) and broke Sousa five times to pull ahead in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-1.