That wasn’t easy. In theory Kei Nishikory had to breeze to the 4th round in Wimbledon as he had to face lucky loser and world no.132 Simone Bolelli, but things got really complicated.
The Italian was leading 2-1 sets up and he brought the Japanese to a crucial tie break in the fourth set. Kei managed to win the breaker at 4, but then the drama escalated as the match was interrupted for 2 days on a 3 all score line. As soon as matched resumed, Nishikori was 15-50 down to then manage to win that game and the final set 6-4.
Some Numbers
Simone scored 1 point more than Kei (147 vs. 146). Probably the main difference between these two was the break point conversion. In fact, both won 2 breaks, but Simone had 8 opportunities and Kei 6. Not breaking Nishikori in the 7th game of the 5th set was just crucial for the Italian.
Nishikori: There as a lot of stress involved
The Japanese commented “This one was a very tight match for me because he was playing really aggressive and flat, both sides, especially the forehand. He was hitting a lot of winners, and sometimes I didn’t know what to do. I was kind of like a yo-yo. I was running from side to side. I think on Saturday he was playing much better than me. But today there were some lucky shots. At 3-All I was down 15/40 on my serve. There was some luck, too.
There was a lot of stress these two days, especially yesterday. I never had something like this, after playing a fifth set, taking one day off, playing again today. It wasn’t easy. But I’m very happy to win today. So hopefully I play another good one tomorrow.”
Next vs. Raonic
Kei will play Milos Raonic for a place in the quarters. Head to head is 2-0 for NIshikori, but there is no favorite for this match.
