Nishikori Back From The Brink

Kei Nishikori left his comfort zone behind in an epic 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) victory over Gael Monfils at the Miami Open presented by Itau on Friday. The No. 6 seed saved five match points and advanced into the semi-finals after two and a half hours.

The No. 16 seeded Monfils came out firing, ripping a 109 mph service return en route to breaking Nishikori in the opening game. The Frenchman was all-in on his service games as well, topping 140 mph on the radar gun with his first delivery. He would end with 14 aces and 41/51 points won on his first serve. Nishikori kept pace with the explosive Monfils by making his second-serve returns count (26/40 points won) and by sneaking into the net at critical junctures.

By the start of the third set, Monfils, clothes soaked with sweat and clearly labouring under the Miami sun, appeared ready to throw in the towel. But the Frenchman instead began hitting with abandon and found his mark time and again. Down 2-4 in the deciding set, Monfils swept the next three games and held four match points with Nishikori serving to stay in the match at 4-5.

Nishikori did not allow Monfils, who was chasing his first win over a Top 10 Emirates ATP Rankings player since last April (d. Federer in Monte Carlo), to win the final point. The baseliner broke with his usual patterns of play and serve-and-volleyed to force a deciding tie-break, then took advantage of an ill-advised Monfils drop shot to move ahead for good. He improved to 16-5 in Miami, 2-0 in the FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry with Monfils, and matched his best showing in South Florida (2014 SF).