Nishikori Off To Good Start In Geneva

Second seed Kei Nishikori improved to 7-0 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin on Tuesday, saving both break points to advance 6-4, 6-3 at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open. “Served really well today I think that’s why I played very solid. I think everything was good today,” Nishikori said.

Nishikori, who accepted a late wild card into the ATP World Tour 250 event, is looking to get his clay season going in Switzerland. The World No. 9 fell to Juan Martin del Potro in the third round last week at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

Before that ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament, the Japanese right-hander suffered a right wrist injury that kept him out of Barcelona and forced him to withdraw from the Mutua Madrid Open before his quarter-final match. But Nishikori said all is better now. “Physically I think I’m very fit now. So I’m feeling very confident,” Nishikori said.

In the quarter-finals, he will meet South African Kevin Anderson, who advanced past #NextGenATP American Jared Donaldson 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-2.

Fifth seed Steve Johnson stayed perfect on the clay this year, dismissing 37-year-old Frenchman Stephane Robert 6-3, 6-3. The American improved to 5-0 on the red dirt, having won the Fayez Sarofim & Co. US Men’s Clay Court Championship title in Houston last month (d. Bellucci). Johnson will next meet Argentine Horacio Zeballos, who prevailed past Serbian Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 0-6, 7-5.

Serbian wild card Janko Tipsarevic beat ninth seed Ryan Harrison 6-4, 7-6(5) and will next play German lucky loser Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, who outlasted countryman Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(2) in two hours and 16 minutes. The 32-year-old Tipsarevic improved to 2-3 on the ATP World Tour but is 20-0 with four titles on the ATP Challenger Tour this season.