Nishikori Holds on to Advance in Washington

Second-seed Kei Nishikori of Japan came back from a set down to beat Australian James Duckworth 6-7(8), 6-1, 6-4 in two hours and 20 minutes on Tuesday night at the Citi Open.

Nishikori coughed up a set point in the opening frame as he was on serve up 5-4, but recovered to take the next two sets and advance to the third-round.

“I started good actually. But in a 5-4 service game, I kind of got tight and couldn’t make any first serves. He started well, so that was the only game in the first set and tie-breaker was really close,” said Nishikori. “But from the second set, I started playing more solid, with less unforced errors, a little more aggressive … everything worked well. I’m happy with how I played after the second set.”

The fifth-ranked player in the world moves on and will play the winner of the match between 16th-seeded Leonardo Mayer and Blaz Rola.

In the last match of the night and one that didn’t start until nearly 1:00 a.m., third-seeded Marin Cilic defeated Hyeon Chung of South Korea 7-6(2), 6-3.

Chung played right with Cilic throughout the opening set, even taking an early break advantage before Cilic forced it into a tie-breaker. From there, Cilic turned his game up, giving himself five set points before closing out the first set. He then raced out to a 4-1 advantage in the second set, and served out the remainder of the match for the victory and to reach the third round in Washington, D.C.

“He’s had a great year this year. He went through Challengers very quickly and into the Top 100,” said Cilic of Chung, who is just one of four teenagers ranked inside the Top 100. “The first time playing him wasn’t easy and he’s a great counter-puncher and moves well on the court. Today, the conditions were very humid, so it wasn’t easy to play and to put the ball away. But the key part for me was to come back in that first set, and get that break back and win the first set. After that, I got momentum going and the tennis was good quality in the second set.”

Cilic will take on 13th-seeded American Sam Querrey at the next stage, after Querrey held hung on to oust Japan’s Go Soeda 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

American Jack Sock rolled into the third-round as well on Tuesday, downing Belgium’s Ruben Bemelmans 7-6(7), 6-3. Sock used his powerful serve all match long, never surrendering a break point chance to close Bemelmans out in under an hour and a half.

Sock will face off with the winner of Richard Gasquet and Gilles Muller.

Joining Querrey and Sock as American winners on Tuesday was Steve Johnson, who moved past Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko 7-5, 6-3 in a first-round matchup.

Also in a first-round contest, veteran Australian Lleyton Hewitt notched a routine 6-3, 6-4 win over his compatriot John-Patrick Smith.

“There were a few key points I was able to win at the right time,” said Hewitt. “He’s a tough all-court player. He makes a lot of tough balls. He doesn’t look like the best mover at times but his defense is very good. He played a lot of defensive lobs on the full stretch. When I was hitting pretty good serves, he was able to hit it back deep and get back in the point. I had to play tough.”

The 12th-seeded Canadian Vasek Pospisil advanced to the third-round with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over American Donald Young. Pospisil will play the winner of the matchup between American John Isner and the Dominican Republic’s Victor Estrella Burgos in the third-round.