Hello world!
After two disappointingly one-sided, sub-one-hour matches yesterday, I’m hoping we can have a couple of more closely-fought encounters today. Certainly the four previous meetings between these players offer plenty of encouragement, the players currently tied 2-2 in their head-to-head, though their one meeting indoors, in Basel three years ago, was a pretty one-sided victory for Roger Federer.
Their first meeting this year, at the World Tour Masters in Miami in March, saw Nishikori come from behind to win in three sets. “I think Kei does really well controlling the ball,” Federer said after that match. “He has great technique, especially on the backhand, very simple, very short back swings, so he does a really nice job of having good timing. I predict he’s going to be Top 10 in a short while.”
Nice prediction. Nishikori has had a fabulous year, starting it ranked No17, breaking into the top 10 briefly in May and then again in September and continuing to rise since, hitting a career high of No5 at the start of this month after reaching the semi-finals in Paris. Then, of course, he beat Andy Murray 6-4, 6-4 in his first match here, while Federer beat Milos Raonic 6-1, 7-6. This could be a fine match.
