Kei Nishikori has secured swift passage to the third round of the Australian Open with his second straight-sets win of the tournament, beating Austin Krajucek 6-3 7-6(3) 6-3.
As the rain passed over Melbourne Park, the No.7 seed was in control throughout the one-hour, 53-minute contest under the Margaret Court Arena roof, barring a brief blip when serving for the second set before atoning in the resulting tiebreak.
American Krajicek, a Bolletieri Academy stablemate with Nishikori growing up, served well but could not stay with the former US Open finalist in the longer rallies, Nishikori winning 64 per cent of rallies that went beyond five shots with some intelligent front-foot tactics, and 16 points from his 21 approaches to the net.As the rain passed over Melbourne Park, the No.7 seed was in control throughout the one-hour, 53-minute contest under the Margaret Court Arena roof, barring a brief blip when serving for the second set before atoning in the resulting tiebreak.
“Great match against Austin, we’ve known each other for a long time so it wasn’t easy to play against him,” said Nishikori, the first man through to the third round.
The world No.7 will face Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez or German qualifier Daniel Brands.
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