By Chris Oddo | Thursday February 14, 2019
Kei Nishikori rolled into the quarter-finals at the first ATP-500 level event of the season as he eased past Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis 6-1 6-4 on Thursday evening to set a last eight encounter with Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics.
Fucsovics closed off the night session with a 7-6(1) 6-1 win over Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Nishikori has now reached at least the quarters in his last nine tour-level events, including Brisbane, where he snapped a three-year title drought by taking the trophy in early January.
The top-seeded World No.7 wasn’t in trouble often against Gulbis on Thursday, and when he did encounter some turbulence he was quick to find his way out of trouble.
Nishikori absolutely dominated the opener, winning 26 of 36 points against the erratic Gulbis, and he looked to be racing to a blowout victory when Gulbis suddenly rallied back from a break down (he was on the brink of going a double-break down) to level up at 3-all.
Back-to-back down-the-line backhand winners gave Gulbis the break in the sixth game, but Nishikori steadied course and broke through soon after to lead 5-4, and clinched the match moments later when the Latvian’s 22nd backhand unforced error sailed long to close affairs at 74 minutes.
Nishikori wasn’t the only high seed moving on in straight sets. Russia’s Daniil Medvedev improved to 13-2 on the season with an impressive win over Fernando Verdasco, 6-2 7-5. It was another stellar returning day from the Russian, who broke four times on 11 opportunities and won 22 of 47 first-serve return points against the 35-year-old Spaniard.
Medvedev reaches the quarter-finals at Rotterdam for the second straight year and the 22-year-old has now won seven straight matches dating back to his win at Davis Cup in early February.
Last week’s Sofia Open champion will face last week’s Montpellier champion in Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Friday’s quarter-finals. The Frenchman got past local Tallon Griekspoor 7-6(5) 6-1 on Thursday.
In other action Damir Dzumhur backed up his victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas with a win over Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4 7-6(3).