Kei Nishikori Falls to J. Munar in AON Open Challenger Quarterfinals

World No. 222 Kei Nishikori suffered a comeback defeat at the hands of third seed J. Munar of Spain in the AON Open Challenger (Italy/Genova, clay, ATP Challenger) men’s tennis quarterfinals, held on the 7th (local time 6th) in Japan.

Nishikori, 34, a former world No. 4, had reached the quarterfinals at the Como Challenger (Como, Italy, clay, ATP Challenger) last week but withdrew from the quarterfinals due to a shoulder injury.

In this tournament, Nishikori defeated qualifier and world number 386 M. Dellavedova (Australia) in the first round and 7th seed JP. Valillas (Peru) in the second round to advance to the quarterfinals.

Match Highlights

In the first set, Nishikori broke twice and took a big lead at 5-1. After that, Nishikori was held to break points, but he did not allow any breaks. In the eighth game, serving for the set, Nishikori converted his second set point to take the lead.

In the second set, Nishikori broke right away in the first game. After that, he showed sharp play and won four games in a row to take a big lead. However, his service games were unstable after that, and he allowed his opponent to win five games in a row. He was broken for the third time in the 12th game, and was caught up to one set all.

In the final set, Nishikori got off to a good start by breaking in the first game, but he allowed Munar to break back in the fourth game and then lost a second time in the sixth game, losing the match after more than two and a half hours.

Next Match

Munar’s victory will see him face either S. Travaglia (Italy), ranked 214th in the world, or qualifier M. Policauk (Croatia), ranked 409th in the world, in the semi-finals.

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