Nishikori Fights Past Dimitrov In Brisbane

Kei Nishikori maintained his firm grip over Grigor Dimitrov on Thursday by avenging his loss in the 2017 Brisbane International final with an impressive 7-5, 7-5 comeback win.

Sixth seed Dimitrov led 4-1 in the second set, but was clawed back by second seed Nishikori, who capitalised on the Bulgarian’s lapse in concentration in the ninth game en route to his fifth win in six FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings (Nishikori leads 4-1 on hard courts).

World No. 9 Nishikori will next prepare for a semi-final against France’s Jeremy Chardy, who beat qualifier Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4) earlier in the day.

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Nishikori make the initial breakthrough against Dimitrov with a forehand winner down the line to convert his third break point chance for a 6-5 lead, prior to closing out a high quality 47-minute first set to 15. Dimitrov regrouped by playing closer to the baseline and forced a backhand error from Nishikori early in the second set en route to a 4-1 advantage.

But Nishikori continued to battle in the 53-minute set and finally converted his third opportunity at 2-4 when Dimitrov struck a backhand long. Two double faults from Dimitrov at 5-5 cost the Bulgarian, who over-hit a forehand approach down the line to gift Nishikori a 6-5 lead.

Last year, Nishikori went 43-21 with runs to three ATP Tour finals at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (l. to Nadal), the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo (l. to Anderson) and the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna (l. to Anderson).

from Tennis - ATP World Tour http://bit.ly/2BVfONp