Kei Nishikori, a two-time champion in Tokyo, will face an experienced opponent in the first round of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016. The 2012 and 2014 winner will take on Nicolas Almagro, a Spaniard who reached No. 9 in the Emirates ATP Rankings in 2011 and beat Nishikori 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-3 in the Tokyo quarter-finals in 2013.

A deep run in Tokyo will help the Japanese star’s qualification bid for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, but first he will need to work his way through a difficult section of the draw. David Goffin and Kevin Anderson are possible quarter-final opponents, while a meeting with Marin Cilic, who topped Nishikori in the 2014 US Open final, could occur in the semis. Winning the Tokyo title for the third time will go a long way in ensuring a third straight year-end championship appearance for Nishikori.

Gael Monfils, who sits one spot behind Nishikori at No. 6 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, will kick off his Tokyo campaign against home favourite Yuichi Sugita while No. 3 seed Tomas Berdych will meet fellow big hitter Gilles Muller. #NextGen stars Nick Kyrgios and Taylor Fritz drew qualifiers for their first-round matches.

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Tomas Berdych began to close the gap on Rafael Nadal in the Emirates ATP Race To London on Friday as he defeated Jiri Vesely 7-6(1), 3-6, 6-2 in the Shenzhen Open quarter-finals.

The Czech is now 490 points behind eighth-placed Nadal in the year-to-date standings, with the Top 8 at the end of the regular season qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Berdych will look to make up yet more ground on the Spaniard when he faces Thomaz Bellucci in the semi-finals of this ATP World Tour 250 tournament. Berdych has a 3-1 record over Bellucci in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

The last match Berdych played against the No. 52-ranked Vesely was an epic in the fourth round at Wimbledon, and he was made to work hard once again by his younger countryman.

After losing his serve in the opening game of the match, Berdych hit back to steal the opener in a tie-break. Vesely drew level in the contest with a service break in the fourth game of the second set, but it was Berdych who took command of the decider, breaking three times after initially dropping his serve to seal victory in two hours and six minutes.

“You don’t play at your best level in every match,” said Berdych. “I also played a very tough match this year against Jiri at Wimbledon, which went to five sets. But I’m happy with the way I played today. It’s good to be on court, to be playing some matches. I’m having a good time.

“I’m going to try to take all the positives I can from tonight’s match to get ready for tomorrow. Bellucci’s playing great tennis this week. I’m going to go out there and take my game to him, and try not to give him too many easy balls.”

Berdych is bidding to reach his first ATP World Tour final of the season after semi-final showings in Doha, Marseille, Wimbledon and St. Petersburg. The Czech is the defending champion in Shenzhen, after beating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in last year’s final.

World No. 81 Bellucci earned his semi-final spot with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over fourth seed Bernard Tomic. The Brazilian fired 14 aces and converted four of his seven break points as he cruised through in 61 minutes.

Bellucci is looking to reach his second final of the season, having finished runner-up in Quito in February (l. to Estrella Burgos).

Fognini/Lindstedt To Face Second Seeds In Final

Fabio Fognini and Robert Lindstedt are through to the Shenzhen doubles final after beating third seeds Mate Pavic and Michael Venus 7-6(2), 6-3. The Italian/Swedish duo will face second seeds Oliver Marach and Fabrice Martin, who are going for their third title of the season after beating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Malek Jaziri 6-3, 6-1. 

Third seed Grigor Dimitrov rallied from a set and a break down to reach the Chengdu Open semi-finals on Friday, battling past Diego Schwartzman 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in just over two hours.

Since the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where he joined forces with coach, Dani Vallverdu, Dimitrov has gone 11-4 on the ATP World Tour, enjoying a resurgence in form that has seen him reach the semi-finals in Cincinnati (l. to Cilic) and the fourth round of the US Open (l. to Murray).

Dimitrov, who clinched his 200^th tour-level win on Wednesday, will now look to reach his third ATP World Tour final of the season, but it was not without a fight that he got by Schwartzman.

The Bulgarian was in trouble as he trailed by a set and 3-1 in the second set, but broke back in the eighth game before breaking again in the 10^th game to force a decider. After relinquishing an early service break in the third set, Dimitrov broke decisively in the fourth game and went on to seal victory.

For a place in the final of this inaugural ATP World Tour 250 tournament, Dimitrov will face either top seed Dominic Thiem or fifth seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

After being hampered by an elbow injury for several months, American teenager Michael Mmoh is finally healthy and producing the high quality tennis he’s capable of.

Competing at this week’s $100,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Tiburon, California, the 18 year old is into his first Challenger quarter-final of 2016. Mmoh ousted sixth seed and fellow American Stefan Kozlov in a second-round clash on Wednesday.

The match was mentally difficult for both because they’re close friends off the court, with Kozlov even recently beating Mmoh in a game of fantasy football. Kozlov said they had to “put the friendship aside and do their best” before walking on court, but Mmoh said playing a familiar face can sometimes provide an extra edge.

“It’s always tough because we’re such good friends off the court,” said Mmoh. “But sometimes I have even more motivation to win when I’m playing a friend.”

Mmoh started his year off strongly by qualifying for his first ATP World Tour main draw at the Memphis Open in February. But just as he was beginning to reach a new level, his elbow injury forced him to sit out for more than two months beginning in April. Although it took time to get his top form back, he’s now “feeling really good about my game [and] it’s showing this week.”

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The American has long been heralded as one of the world’s top junior players, peaking last year at No. 2 in the ITF Junior Rankings, but has been focusing almost exclusively on pro events this year. Mmoh closed out his junior career last month by winning the Boys’ 18s National Championships in Kalamazoo, which gave him a wild card into the main draw of the US Open.

“All the players are good in the pros, so you don’t get many easy rounds,” said Mmoh. “But in the juniors, you should get a win pretty easily if you play up to your standard. The junior events don’t take as much of a toll on the mental side.”

Mmoh plays second seed and fellow American Bjorn Fratangelo in a quarter-final match on Friday. With so many young American players climbing up the Emirates ATP Rankings, Mmoh is eager to follow in their footsteps and join them on the world’s biggest stages.

“It’s been extremely important to see that,” said Mmoh. “I look at the way Tiafoe goes deep in these tournaments and it’s motivating. You want to do better than your peers every day. It’s just great motivation for all of us.”

This week’s $100,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Tiburon, California, has long been known as one of the most respected tournaments on the calendar, but now it will also be known for holding a record that likely won’t be broken anytime soon.

On Wednesday, Canadians Philip Bester and Peter Polansky won a marathon 20-18 second set tie-break in their opening round doubles match over Darian King of Barbados and American #NextGen star Frances Tiafoe. The 38-point tie-break is the longest in Challenger doubles since the ATP began keeping records for such doubles matches in 2007. Bester/Polansky saved multiple match points to prevail in the tie-break.

Including ATP World Tour matches, it is the second-longest tie-break, only behind a 25-23 marathon in a first-round clash in Washington, D.C. in 2015, which saw Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah prevail over Austin Krajicek/Nicholas Monroe. These tie-break stats do not include Match Tie-breaks.

“It was a pretty insane tie-break. Every match point and set point was long and they all ended with a ridiculous shot,” said Polansky. “It’s one of the most entertaining matches I’ve played in my entire career.”

Bester added that “it was a fun ‘breaker to be a part of. I thought it was never going to end.”

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But while the Canadians won the battle, King and Tiafoe won the war. They regrouped after dropping the marathon tie-break to take the match, 7-6(2), 6-7(18), 10-8. King/Tiafoe rallied from 0-4 down in the Match Tie-break.

“I sat down in the chair at 18-all and was thinking, ‘This is the craziest thing that’s ever happened.’ I remember Bester saying that he’s never been a part of anything like this. That was good fun,” said Tiafoe. “When we got to match point at 9-8, I was thinking we had to end it there and we did.”

“We had a lot of fun and the crowd really enjoyed it,” added Tiafoe. “There were some extremely lucky shots, but we all stepped up on the big points. You just try to stay in the moment as much as possible and make a lot of first serves.” 

Next up for King/Tiafoe is a quarter-final match on Friday against Americans Sekou Bangoura/Mitchell Krueger. 

Already a four-time ATP World Tour champion this season, 23-year-old Dominic Thiem is riding high on his formula for success. The co-leader with Novak Djokovic for match wins this season, on 56, the Austrian is on track to qualify for his first Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

An often unrecognised statistic in his winning ways, though, is his enviable tour-leading 21-1 record in deciding sets for the year to date. “Every time I read it I’m impressed about the statistic,” Thiem laughs.

It is a huge improvement on last season, a combination of factors the Austrian puts down to luck, fitness and a healthy dose of confidence.

“A lot of things have an influence,” he said. “First of all, in the first couple of tournaments of the year I was a little bit lucky to win a few third sets. Then of course if you have a 5-0, 6-0, 7-0 record in the decider, you have a lot of confidence.

“The other thing is on clay it’s very hard to play against me. It’s heavier I think and physically tough for the opponent. That’s also the reason and of course my fitness and mental game have improved on last year.”

Despite the impressive record Thiem doubts it enters his opponents’ minds, should they find themselves in a deciding set against him. They are more focused on what they need to do to get across the line.

“Nobody really thinks about it when it goes to the deciding set,” he said. “I don’t think somebody goes in thinking they’re scared because I have such good statistics.”

It serves as a welcome confidence boost in the back of his mind if the match is all square and heading to a final set. “I think so yeah. I think last year was different,” he said.

“I lost more than I won. I think if it comes to a decider I have a very good record there so you have a bit better feeling than normal.”

So who claims bragging rights as the only player to have taken the deciding set against Thiem in 2016? That goes to Philipp Kohlschreiber, a third-set tie-break winner in the BMW Open final in Munich.

“Nothing went wrong,” he laughed. “He played really good and he deserved to win that actually. I was really lucky it came to a decider.”

 Here’s a look at the Top 10 deciding-set match wins leaders for 2016 to date.

Third seed Richard Gasquet is through to the Shenzhen Open semi-finals after edging qualifier Mischa Zverev 7-6(4), 7-6(2) on Friday.

The Frenchman prevailed in just over two hours to claim his 28^th win of the season. Zverev had not dropped a set in advancing to his first ATP World Tour quarter-final in almost a year, but came up just short against Gasquet, despite saving 11 of 14 break points. The German was looking to reach his first semi-final in six years.

The 30-year-old Gasquet is chasing his second ATP World Tour title of the season, following victory in Montpellier in February (d. Mathieu). It has been, at times, a frustrating year for the right-hander, hampered by back, rib and abdominal injuries. But he is looking to get back on track after a surprise first-round defeat to Kyle Edmund at the US Open.

Gasquet goes on to face Malek Jaziri or Janko Tipsarevic for a place in his 26^th ATP World Tour final.