Nishikori Opens Barcelona Three-Peat Bid
Nishikori Opens Barcelona Three-Peat Bid
Nishikori back in the swing on clay
Second seed Kei Nishikori opened his title defence at the Barcelona Open BancSabadell on Wednesday with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Thiemo de Bakker.
The Japanese star has won 11 straight matches at this ATP World Tour 500 clay-court tournament and continued his winning run with victory over de Bakker in 69 minutes. Nishikori claimed his second win of the season over the No. 102-ranked de Bakker as he won 74 per cent of his service points and broke serve three times.
“I’m happy to be back in Barcelona,” said Nishikori. “Today’s conditions were tough with the wind and I’m happy to be in the next round.”
The 26-year-old Nishikori is playing his first clay-court tournament of the season and improved to 20-6 in 2016. The right-hander is coming off a runner-up showing at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Miami (l. to Djokovic) and captured his 11th title in Memphis (d. Fritz) in February.
The two-time defending Barcelona champion goes on to face Jeremy Chardy.
Seventh seed Feliciano Lopez edged Ivan Dodig 7-6(5), 6-4 to move into the third round. Lopez dropped serve twice but went 3-for-9 on break points to advance in one hour and 46 minutes. He moved ahead 3-2 in the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry and will now face tenth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, who eased past Pablo Carreno Busta 6-2, 6-1 in just over an hour.
Ninth seed Pablo Cuevas saw off Spanish left-hander Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-4, 7-5. Cuevas failed to serve out the match at 5-4 in the second set, but swept the last two games to set up a third-round clash against sixth seed Benoit Paire.