Nishioka Returns To Winning Ways In Singapore
Yoshihito Nishioka battled past Michael Mmoh 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 on Monday at the Singapore Tennis Open to earn his first victory of 2021.
The Japanese No. 2 entered the match on a four-match losing streak, but he broke serve on three occasions and won 71 per cent of his service points (53/75) to overcome Mmoh in one hour and 58 minutes.
Nishioka is aiming to capture his second ATP Tour title this week. The 25-year-old, who won his maiden tour-level crown at 2018 Shenzhen, will meet Maxime Cressy for a place in the quarter-finals.
Earlier in the day, Cressy claimed his second win of the year. The American, who fell in three sets to Alexander Zverev in the Australian Open second round, converted three of his five break points to beat Jason Jung 7-6(4), 6-2.
[WATCH LIVE 3]#NextGenATP Bulgarian Adrian Andreev earned his second tour-level victory with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 comeback win against seventh seed Lloyd Harris. The 19-year-old saved 12 of the 15 break points he faced to overcome Harris in two hours and 19 minutes.
“It is very difficult to compete at this level and sometimes when you are beginning to play such tournaments, you have this disbelief,” said Andreev. “But when I won the match, it proved to myself that I can play at this level and the third set proves to me that I can compete if I have the right mindset.”
Andreev will face Alexei Popyrin for a place in his maiden ATP Tour quarter-final. Popyrin held his nerve to claim a 7-6(5), 7-6(5) win over American qualifier Christopher Eubanks.
Taro Daniel withstood 15 aces to beat India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-3. The 28-year-old will meet third seed Marin Cilic in the second round.
“Cilic has a huge game, big serves and ground strokes,” said Daniel. “I think that there [will] be more high-paced rallies, so I definitely need to be on top of my service game. I will be looking to pressure him with my serves and also move him around because that’s probably his weakness if there is one. Either way, he is a Grand Slam champion [and a] two-time [Grand Slam runner-up], so I have to be on top of my game. I have nothing to lose and I’m pretty excited to be playing him.”