Kei Nishikori skipped the fifth-set drama on Saturday and advanced to the fourth round of the Australian Open for the seventh time.
The eighth seed, who had played two five-setters to start the tournament, swept Portugal’s Joao Sousa 7-6(6), 6-1, 6-2 to setup a round of 16 contest with Italy’s Fabio Fognini or Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta.
“First set could have gone both ways. He was playing well. He was serving well. Playing aggressive, using his forehand. Maybe I hit too much to his forehand… That’s his best weapon,” Nishikori said. “But second and third, I think I relaxed a little more, started hitting more good shots, heavy, serving well. It obviously helps my body winning in three sets. I had a tough first and second round.”
Both Nishikori and Sousa came through two five-setters to make the third round. Nishikori came back from two sets down against Polish qualifier Kamil Majchrzak and outlasted Croatian Ivo Karlovic in a fifth-set Match Tie-break.
Sousa overcame Argentina’s Guido Pella and Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany. But it was Nishikori who had more left in the tank in Margaret Court Arena. The Japanese right-hander, who’s made the quarter-finals three times (2012, 2015, 2016), won nearly 80 per cent of his first-serve points (40/52) and broke Sousa five times to pull ahead in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-1.
“I’ll try to recover well. I think that’s most important going into the second week,” Nishikori said.
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