By Chris Oddo | Tuesday January 15, 2019
Kei Nishikori had his back against the wall for a stint on Tuesday, as Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak belted his way to a two sets to love lead over the No.8 seed on Margaret Court Arena. But by the end of the day the Polish qualifier had learned a valuable lesson about best-of-five set matches in Grand Slam play: Survival of the fittest is not just a cliché designed to glorify the sport at the highest level—it’s a real and underlying theme at the Grand Slam level where finishing on your feet is often more important than blasting out of the blocks.
Nevertheless, Majchrzak can hold his head high and take solace in the fact that he caused a thunderbolt of anxiety to charge through Nishikori’s very being on Day 2.
Coming off his first title in nearly three years Nishikori must have been high on confidence as he prepared to face the little known World No. 176, but as the sway of the match took the pair close to the end of the second set that confidence was replaced with genuine terror and disgust.
“I have to say he had it today,” a relieved Nishikori said of his opponent after the match. “He was playing very well, better than I thought I have to say.”
Nishikori found himself down a set and break late in set two and as he desperately searched for ways to negate the aggression of the earnest 23-year-old, he knew that time was not working in his favor.
It felt like now or never late in that stanza (little did we know), and Nishikori punched through the never and executed the now to break to level at 5-all before nearly engineering a break to claim the set. He was frustrated that he could not secure that break, and again, in the second-set tiebreaker he was frustrated that he could not convert a set point and ended up dropping the set to fall two sets to love down.
“Second set I was playing better, but he was playing amazing tennis, forehand, backhand, everything,” Nishikori said after the match. “He was serving really well today, I think.”
Dire straits indeed, and all of this after finally breaking through in Sydney to start the year with such a bang.
But Nishikori caught a break when the Pole’s fitness began to flag. Cramping set in and Majchrzak started to wilt. Meanwhile, a determined Nishikori kept hammering away with sinister precision. Even had Majchrzak not been suffering, we do need to keep in mind that the Japanese No.1 entered the match with an 18-6 record in fifth sets and two career comebacks from 0-2 down.
Experience and fitness, the hallmarks of what make the older players on tour so daunting to face, particularly at the majors, were certainly working in Nishikori’s favor on this day.
Majchrzak waited and waited, hydrated and hydrated, but he never could get his body to behave; when he fell behind 3-0 in the fifth he pulled the plug, knowing that there was no chance to stop Nishikori, who was fresh as a daisy, from rolling to victory.
“I didn’t do anything third and fourth set,” Nishikori said, half disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to produce magic against a worthy opponent. “He was hurt, so I just feel sorry for him.”
Still, Nishikori is happy to be through to the second round, and excited to make a better go of it when he faces Ivo Karlovic.
“I have to be happy,” he said. “Because I almost lost today. I’ll try to be more positive for the next round and hope that I can keep playing better.”