Nishikori Reaches The Second Round At Roland Garros

Entering Sunday, Kei Nishikori had never lost a clay-court match against an opponent ranked as low as his first-round opponent at Roland Garros, World No. 153 Quentin Halys. That did not change.

The Japanese star dismissed the Frenchman 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 59 minutes to reach the second round in Paris for the fifth consecutive year. Nishikori remains undefeated against wild cards at Grand Slams (5-0), and he will face the winner of former World No. 5 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and German Peter Gojowczyk next.

Nishikori is now 12-1 against players competing at their home majors, and 8-1 against Frenchmen at Roland Garros. The seventh seed broke serve 18 times from 19 chances, earning 53 per cent of his return points in his first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting against Halys.

Although Nishikori has only won two of his 12 ATP Tour titles on clay, he has won a higher rate of matches on the red dirt (70.5%) than on any other surface. Nishikori made the quarter-finals in Paris in 2015 and 2017.

from Tennis - ATP World Tour http://bit.ly/2W59aB3