Kei Nishikori is the first Japanese man to reach a Grand Slam final, and he made it there with a huge upset over No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic on Saturday.
Kei Nishikori became the first Japanese man to reach a Grand Slam final with a thrilling four-set victory over top seed Novak Djokovic at the U.S. Open on Saturday. Nishikori, the tournament's No. 10 seed, took the matchup at 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4), 6-3.
Djokovic wasn't playing the best tennis of his career by any stretch of the imagination, but the 27-year-old was trying to reach his fifth consecutive U.S. Open final, rendering this a major upset.
Nishikori took the first set cleanly, but Djokovic responded with very aggressive play to overwhelm him in the second set. The third set was much tighter than the first as a result, but Nishikori kept a cool head and eventually started to take advantage of Djokovic's aggressive play. The third set even saw Nishikori up 5-3, but Djokovic brought things back and forced the tiebreaker.
Nishikori dominated said tiebreaker, and then opened the fourth set by breaking Djokovic. They both held serve from there, and Nishikori finished the match with a flourish, breaking Djokovic to close out the match. Djokovic was looking tired mid-way through the third set, which is surprising given that Nishikori is the one who has played strenuous, lengthy matches against No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka and No. 5 seed Milos Raonic.
There's video of Nishikori's historic match point below, courtesy of the U.S. Open Twitter account:
Match point. History. #Nishikori #Djokovic #usopen @Heineken_US http://t.co/vDG6BRN7yS
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 6, 2014
Nishikori will advance to the final, where he'll take on either No. 2 seed Roger Federer or No. 14 seed Marin Cilic. Those two will have their match Saturday afternoon, with the final set for Monday.
from SBNation.com - All Posts http://ift.tt/1xqsxC4
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