Wimbledon: Nishikori eases past Kuznetsov, advances to fourth round

Japanese will meet ninth seed Cilic who beat him in 2014 US Open final

LONDON: With minimum fuss Japan’s Kei Nishikori brushed past Andrey Kuznetsov 7-5, 6-3, 7-5 yesterday to advance to a fourth-round Wimbledon showdown with Marin Cilic.

The fifth seed won 7-5, 6-3, 7-5 to the delight of a patient contingent of Japanese fans who had sat wrapped up against the drizzle on Court Three through a lengthy break between the second and third sets.

Nishikori, 26, beat the swashbuckling Russian, who failed to find a way to counter the Japanese player’s baseline aggression and solid defence.

He broke Nishikori’s service in the third set after a first rain delay to go 3-0 up but lost his own after a second shorter pause and, racking up the unforced errors, never got back on top.

Nishikori next meets ninth seed Cilic who beat him in the 2014 US Open final.

Kerber grinds out third-round win

Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber ground out a 7-6(11), 6-1 win over unseeded fellow German Carina Witthoeft at Wimbledon yesterday in a third-round contest high on drama but variable in quality.

Both women struggled to cope with a gusting wind in a dramatic first set lasting exactly an hour and featuring six breaks of serve. Kerber, 28, ploughed numerous groundstrokes into the net while Witthoeft often hit long and was plagued by an inconsistent serve, making eight double faults overall.

The higher-ranked player looked to have blown her chances of pulling ahead when she let four consecutive first-set points slip away in the tiebreak. But with neither woman able to make the decisive play, Kerber won the breaker 13-11 when Witthoeft hit another backhand beyond the baseline.

Notwithstanding two rain interruptions, the second set was smoother sailing for Kerber, who broke in the second game and again, on her third break point, in the sixth before serving out the match to 30.

Halep downs Bertens to register third successive win

Simona Halep strung together three successive victories at the All England Club for only the second time in her career as she eased into the Wimbledon fourth round with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Dutch dangerwoman Kiki Bertens.

Bertens had all the credentials to create an upset following her run to the semi-finals of last month’s French Open, which included a first-round victory over Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber.

When the Bertens broke the world number five in the first game of a match, the alarm bells must have started ringing for Halep as she stood at the baseline with her head hanging.

However, the Romanian quickly snapped back into focus to break back in the next game and twice more to bag the set with a crosscourt service return winner.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2016.

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