Deep Analysis of The Fascinating McDonald vs Nishikori Duel

By Scoop Malinowski

Last night’s Delray Beach first round clash Mackenzie McDonald vs Kei Nishikori lived up to the expectations and was a fascinating duel.

They first played in Washington DC 2021 and McDonald won that 64 36 75 but what caught my eye was the faint but clear sense of tension between the two. Nishikori is by far the more accomplished champion and he wore an aura of slight arrogance, “How dare you think you can beat me playing my style.”

Well, McDonald somehow won that first match in DC and Kei looked annoyed at the end but it was subtle of course. I’ve seen both play dozens of times and I know their court characters.

They played a month later at US Open and Kei won another marathon thriller in five sets 76 63 67 26 63.

Last night the tone was set early, it was super intense tennis and both came out guns blazing. Both play identical tennis, perfect technique, consistent, great movers and both can snap winners when needed.

The stats show Kei is supposed to be the better player – he has 12 ATP titles, was top 5, McDonald has zero titles and his best ranking was around 40 in the world. Kei is 35 now, six years older than McDonald but he’s currently ranked 79, far ahead of McDonald’s 123. Kei has won 447 career matches, McDonald has won 106.

So even though they look like mirror images of each other on the court, for some reason Kei can’t dominate McDonald as one would expect.

You would think the original version with the far more success would beat his imitation. Especially now because Kei wants back to the the elite level of the ATP and he’s been playing well for the last six months. McDonald has dropped in the last year and so he’s hungry to get back to the top 100, top 50 range.

There were a lot of interesting elements of last night’s battle. McDonald’s game and also his demeanor annoys Kei in different ways. On the way to his chair for the changeover, McDonald fist pumped himself, in plain view of Kei, essentially telling Kei, “I know I can beat you again.” I don’t remember McDonald being so outwardly expressive. He showed a lot of fist pumps to his box last night.

Kei feels the pressure because in his mind he is superior. At 34 in the first set after losing the first point, Kei went to his chair to … change his vibration dampener. Undoubtedly a stall tactic to bother his rival. McDonald ended up winning the first set tiebreaker 75.

Kei loosened up in the second set and snatched the break and then a second break but again McDonald fought back and made him earn the 64 set to level the match.

Both players are identical. Not only do they play the same style and hit mostly flat penetrating shots from both sides but they also use the same Wilson racquet and they both wear caps and they both have the habit of lifting their shirts to wipe off the faces, showing their toned abdominal. At one point McDonald even seemed to imitate Kei’s triple fist pump after a winner.

Like their previous two clashes, this match went all the way to the finish line close and ultimately McDonald prevailed again 75. Why? For some reason he has no fear of Nishikori or over-respect for his mentor inspirational Asian hero. I also detect an element of Kei feeling he is the master and McDonald is his student and there’s a how dare you disrespect me by beating me. Or is there some unknown subconscious racial identity factor of Kei being 100% Japanese and McDonald being half Asian, half White that complicates the rivalry?

The last point was Kei serving at 30-40, down match point, and McDonald ripped a forehand winner to the Kei forehand corner which he made no attempt to get to. It was the same forehand winner Kei hit about ten times in the match himself. It was McDonald’s first match point of the match.

Kei gave McDonald an obligatory quick smile at the net handshake but that was all. It looked like a smile that said, “You got me with my own shot, it was kind of lucky though…”

The fact remains though, in a bizarre example of the abstract anomaly of the tennis universe, Kei Nishikori could handle all the giants of the ATP but for some mysterious reason, he has the most difficulties trying to beat a journeyman who plays his exact same brand of carbon copy tennis.

Delray Beach Ope · Delray Beach Open · Kei Nishikori · MacKenzie McDonald

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