[MWW]

Tougher encounter than expected. Kei blitzed through 1st set with great striking and returns. But Goffin steadied himself and was more aggressive in the second. Breaks exchanged in the third, had me worried for a second. Goffin's level dipped at 4-4 *40-15, dropping 4 pts in a row to get broken and Kei served it out.

Hopefully he'll get better as tourney progresses.

 

[FedererBulgaria]

Great match,shame Goffin decided to break himself at the end.Kei once again so emotionless,its boring Kei,show some emotions at least after the win !

 

[Tandil]

Really needs to play better to beat Ferrer in the QF. Bautista won't be a problem.

 

[Haneul]

Better player lost. Nishifrauds to twist my words and say otherwise NID.

 

[Pablo23]

Madrid [R2] [4] Nishikori d. Goffin 6-2 4-6 6-4

brilliant match, both of you :worship: Kei started like a hurricane, winners all over the place, David could do nothing about it (every Goffin second serve = Nishikori return winner. Seriously.), until 4-0 in the first set where Kei started to play at a more human level, and that's when the great match started. Kei held his way comfortably to a 6-2 first set, but the stage had been set already.

The second was fantastic, Goffin with some absurd backhands (13/4 Winners/UEs lol), actually good serving, great defense and angles (and Nishikori was pretty good as well, just not so good like in the first, but no-one can keep *that* up forever). He had some early chances, missed them, but finally broke in the tenth game to win the second.

In the third, both dropped a little bit, but it was still pretty damn good. Both had some good chances, but in the end it was the Final set monster that did it. At the very least, shortlisted for Match of the Year. Really happy to see David showing some good stuff at last, a bit of '14 here. Both ended with a W/UE ratio of +12 or something, ridiculous stuff.

 

[MWW]

Great match,shame Goffin decided to break himself at the end.Kei once again so emotionless,its boring Kei,show some emotions at least after the win !

It's pretty late probably just tired - but I think he knew that was a close shave...that's what showed on his face

 

[tildeloltilde]

Damn. Goffin played extremely well, love seeing him on the clay. Too bad he lost. Great fight, and much better than that disgusting showing the other month in the USA in Miami I think it was.

Looking forward to Rome!

 

[ThP]

NID that David would choke his last service game away. So close, but yet so far. He needs to add some variety to his game: not a single dropshot, no serve and volley, not enough angles or defensive slices.

Kei was phenomenal in that first set.

 

[MrMarble]

What the heck is it with Nishi and deciding sets...

Impressive.

 

[MWW]

Basically Goffin redlined after first set, striking harder BHs and hitting along the lines. Served and returned well.
Most aggressive I have seen Goffin

 

[Pscht]

Nishikori was hitting winner at will in the first set so it looked like a pretty straightforward win. Goffin did really well to fight back, the second set is the best level he has shown this year. He was very clutch on many occasions which is rare to see. :yeah:

 

[MWW]

[

Nishikori was hitting winner at will in the first set so it looked like a pretty straightforward win. Goffin did really well to fight back, the second set is the best level he has showed this year. He was very clutch on many occasions which is rare to see. :yeah:

Also rare to see a match in the winner department against Kei! Goffin really forced the issue a lot.

 

[lina2kei]

an incredible performance from Goffin.

 

[Adri89]

Re: Madrid [R2] [4] Nishikori d. Goffin 6-2 4-6 6-4

brilliant match, both of you :worship: Kei started like a hurricane, winners all over the place, David could do nothing about it (every Goffin second serve = Nishikori return winner. Seriously.), until 4-0 in the first set where Kei started to play at a more human level, and that's when the great match started. Kei held his way comfortably to a 6-2 first set, but the stage had been set already.

The second was fantastic, Goffin with some absurd backhands (13/4 Winners/UEs lol), actually good serving, great defense and angles (and Nishikori was pretty good as well, just not so good like in the first, but no-one can keep *that* up forever). He had some early chances, missed them, but finally broke in the tenth game to win the second.

In the third, both dropped a little bit, but it was still pretty damn good. Both had some good chances, but in the end it was the Final set monster that did it. At the very least, shortlisted for Match of the Year. Really happy to see David showing some good stuff at last, a bit of '14 here. Both ended with a W/UE ratio of +12 or something, ridiculous stuff.

This. It was a great match :yeah:

 

[Pablo23]

NID that David would choke his last service game away. So close, but yet so far. He needs to add some variety to his game: not a single dropshot, no serve and volley, not enough angles or defensive slices.

Kei was phenomenal in that first set.

:lol: both employed ridiculous angles, DTL and crosscourt winners at will, it's not like it happened once every blue moon, it was a standard feature of the match.

Goffin rarely uses the drop shot, and since Kei isn't precisely a slug, it wasn't a good time to improvise *that* part of the game. Defensive slice was more than ok, managed to claw his way back into points with it many times, but he didn't use it a lot, ok, but why, why, why would someone like Goffin try to serve and volley of all things? on clay? against Nishikori? with his serve!! (even if today it was very good)
what an odd post.

Thanks for the stats screen MWW. I saw 16 UE's instead of 18, but anyway it's still excellent.

 

[Mr. library]

As a huge fan of Nishikori and a fan of Goffin, this match was a treat. I did feel a little nauseous thinking about Nishikori losing 500+pts and conceding his rank to Raonic. Look at that Winner-UE ratio, this is tennis. Real tennis. Goffin was quite amazing in the 2nd set, winning most of the long rallies.

 

[Mark Lenders]

Goffin played an amazing match, tough luck for him. Another win for decidingsetkori, a very, very tough one.

 

[Alex F. Delarge]

Oh man. I missed a great match, it seems. I mean the part where it started to become great. I watched the 1st set, and thought that it would be a bit of a waste of time to continue to watch. Stupid of me, especially since I like both of them very much.

 

[Slade]

Motherfuck... :sad:

David why CHOKE?

 

[MWW]

Thanks for the stats screen MWW. I saw 16 UE's instead of 18, but anyway it's still excellent.

It was actually Pscht who uploaded that actually.
Very good stats. I initially thought Nishikori was sloppy (a bit) but moreso it's to do with Goffin raising his level big time till 4-4 final set.

Good news was Kei serving at 71%. I think really to have a chance against Kei you have to really go for your shots and take time away from Kei (which he does so well to his opponents). Goffin did that well for the most part and had me worried about a potential upset. But deciding set Kei not to be denied.