Tennis Prose




Aug/22

4

Nishioka Gets Hot At Citi Open

Yoshihito Nishioka has been an average player for the last year but this week in Citi Open he has exploded with three excellent victories.

Coming into the tournament with a ranking of 96, the Japanese lefty upset Atlanta finalist Jenson Brooksby in the first round 64 63.

Then he beat Atlanta champion Alex deMinaur in the second round 36 76 62. Nishioka has now beaten the fleet-footed Australian all three times they played.

Today in the round of 16, Nishioka beat a heavyweight player he had never beaten before. Nishioka was 0-2 career vs. Karen Khachanov but today Nishioka was brilliant again winning 76 76.

“I never beat him, Khachanov, from when we were juniors,” Nishioka said after the triumph. “I lost last year in the Olympics against him. Today I really wanted to beat him. It was a very, very close match but today I figured out how to beat him. Today was a crazy hot day. We both were a little bit tired for sure. I love long rallies – he doesn’t like it. He wants to hit big forehands, but I tried to keep making him run for balls and move him…. It was, I think, a mentality battle.”

It’s been a bad year in 2022 for Nishioka, his match record was 5-10 before this week. The former world no. 48 has a career record is 83-103 including one ATP title.

Now into the Citi Open QF, Nishioka awaits Dan Evans, who saved a match point to beat Taylor Fritz.

Nishioka will pass Taro Daniel next week to be the highest ranked Japanese player in the ATP. He’s at no. 79 in the live rankings and could re-enter the top 50 again if he wins the Citi Open title on Sunday.

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1 comment

  • Cory Minto · August 6, 2022 at 6:23 pm

    i think Nishioka wins tonight against Rublev – of course long odds, but think there’s a good chance…

    Also Mikael Ymer is like a weed, he finds his way thru the cracks of your game… and i think he can be tricky for Kyrgios… mentally strong and doesn’t give you much pace – kind of reactive (not unlike Nishioka). Of course Kyrgios creates his own but he’s one of those guys where you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop (self-implosion).

    At the very least i think we’ll be in for some quality matches!

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