Tomic Upsets Nishikori to Reach Brisbane Semifinals

Australian Bernard Tomic moved into the Brisbane International semifinals on Friday at the Pat Rafter Arena, holding off second-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan for a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 victory.

Tomic came out sharp in the opening set, and after saving a couple of early break points, he capitalized right away, and broke Nishikori at 4-3. He would consolidate it with a hold to close out the opening set 6-3.

But Nishikori responded right away in the second set. He broke the seventh-seed Tomic for a 3-1 lead and would add another break later in a 6-1 second set route to force a deciding third.

Tomic showed his nerve early in the third set. Instead of allowing Nishikori to continue his momentum, the 23-year old Australian broke for a 2-0 advantage and then again for a 3-1 lead, eventually putting Nishikori away.

“Obviously this win is huge,” said Tomic. “Now I’m at the level [over the] past few months being in the top 20 and playing these players that have been consistently in the top 10, top 5 in the world. It’s a huge, huge feeling to play and it motivates you. That’s what I needed. I needed match wins against these high profile players around the world.”

Nishikori had defeated Tomic in the very same round of this tournament a year ago, but Tomic exacted some revenge, but the loss doesn’t concern Nishikori all that much.

“I didn’t play my best tennis today, but I think he played good tennis, too,” said Nishikori. “He served really well. He saved many important points with his serve. He was running side to side and he got so many balls back, so it was really tough. [It’s the] first tournament of the year, so I’m not that worried.”

Tomic will take on fourth-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic in the semifinals. In the only two-set match of the four quarterfinals, Raonic dismissed France’s Lucas Pouille 6-4, 6-4 on Friday.

Top-seed and defending champion Roger Federer defeated Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4 in the last quarterfinal match to be played in Brisbane.

After dropping the opening set, Dimitrov broke for a 5-3 lead in the second set. But Federer responded to get the set back on serve and send it into a tiebreaker. The breaker was all Dimitrov, as he rattled off five of the first six points on his way to forcing a deciding third set.