[MWW]

Wild match. Kei very wobbly in set 1, looking like he did the past few matches. Then Evans imploding in set 2. Kei starting to look like the normal player he was in set 3 before choking badly trying to serve for it (with some amazing lucky net cords in Evans' favour). Sloppy Kei in 4th and just enough juice to claw to the finish line in the 5th.

Despite the messiness of the match, partly due to Evans' tactics and style leading to some impatience from Kei, I felt as if Kei's return of serve, movement and groundstrokes looked like the Kei of old. Maybe it's because Evans gives him the room to set up shots, but certainly the intensity and intention on the ball was there. So there is some hope for Kei if he can work on that.

I guess the fact it was a GS fired him up a little.

 

[SetPointDown]

Deciding setkori is back

 

[InfoKenway]

He does it again.

Unfortunately he will get destroyed by Travaglia in R2, but this win must be good for confidence.

24-6 in 5 sets now.

 

[Rustie]

I think Evans should just skip clay for the rest of his career.

 

[smithy]

One does simply not beat Nishikori in a 5th set.

 

[Kei Nishikori]

Had he lost this match, Kei's confidence would have been completely shattered later on given his king of deciding set status has never let him down esp a good record here in FO

Look what happened to Coria's career afterwards, although that was in the final ...

 

[raysun68]

Nishikori creats another wacky scoreline in RG, last year there was the 6-2 6-7 6-2 6-7 7-5 against Paire, year before that was the 0-6 6-4 6-4 6-0 against Verdasco 🤣

 

[Budadiii]

5-setkori back at it again.

Mental beast until facing Federer&Djokovic

 

[Budadiii]

He does it again.

Unfortunately he will get destroyed by Travaglia in R2, but this win must be good for confidence.

24-6 in 5 sets now.

Why do you think so?

 

[MWW]

He does it again.

Unfortunately he will get destroyed by Travaglia in R2, but this win must be good for confidence.

24-6 in 5 sets now.

haven't seen much of Travaglia but he seems to be having decent results, I mean beating Andujar and Coric recently...

Kei's main thorn today was finishing rallies he had control of, pushing Evans deep but not quite able to capitalise. If he can dial that in, we might be talking.

 

[laughingcavalier]

Nishikori creats another wacky scoreline in RG, last year there was the 6-2 6-7 6-2 6-7 7-5 against Paire, year before that was the 0-6 6-4 6-4 6-0 against Verdasco 🤣

... If you asked me to list 5 players who could bagel someone in a match and still lose on a bagel rest assured Verdasco would easily be on that list.

Unless I'm mistaken had Kei lost the match in the 5th set his deciding set winning record would've been gone and he would've been relegated to 3rd.

That would've been ANOTHER record to Djokovic

 

[MWW]

... If you asked me to list 5 players who could bagel someone in a match and still lose on a bagel rest assured Verdasco would easily be on that list.

Unless I'm mistaken had Kei lost the match in the 5th set his deciding set winning record would've been gone and he would've been relegated to 3rd.

That would've been ANOTHER record to Djokovic

Kei would still have the 5th set record though, right?

 

[POTUS Haase]

I think Evans should just skip clay for the rest of his career.

Can't skip a 60k paycheck though

 

[Dimitard]

Slamkori scoreline if I ever saw one lol
God bless him tho, he’s a fighter and a clutch bot

 

[Losange]

That scoreline sums up tennis in 2020.

Nice win for Nishikori after all his issues.

 

[Sara X]

This match was going everywhere and then back again, but I did trust Kei would take it when it went to 5th.

I'd say this was a good win for Kei mentally, after his comeback. A 1st round win only, some might say, but this is a slam, so it must feel good after all what he's been through.

Evans then again just can't get it together on clay and I was surprised to see him play even this 'well'. I really like his game, but not on clay and not in this match.

 

[cmchelsea]

Pretty scrappy match with several momentum swings. Both players failed to serve for the 3rd set. In fact Evans won 10 out of 12 games up until the 5th set, but even still i never fancied his chances in the decider given Kei's 5 set record.

ITV coverage was gold. Courier and Santoro saying this was a high quality match, but the icing on the cake was John Inverdale saying that if Evans got through to R3 him v Nadal would've been a great match lol guy should be fired for that comment alone.

 

[Denis denis]

Nice and essential win for Nishikori. Quality player. So so match.

 

[MWW]

Pretty scrappy match with several momentum swings. Both players failed to serve for the 3rd set. In fact Evans won 10 out of 12 games up until the 5th set, but even still i never fancied his chances in the decider given Kei's 5 set record.

ITV coverage was gold. Courier and Santoro saying this was a high quality match, but the icing on the cake was John Inverdale saying that if Evans got through to R3 him v Nadal would've been a great match lol guy should be fired for that comment alone.

Slice against Nadal's topspin lefty FH delight...

 

[Rustie]

Pretty scrappy match with several momentum swings. Both players failed to serve for the 3rd set. In fact Evans won 10 out of 12 games up until the 5th set, but even still i never fancied his chances in the decider given Kei's 5 set record.

ITV coverage was gold. Courier and Santoro saying this was a high quality match, but the icing on the cake was John Inverdale saying that if Evans got through to R3 him v Nadal would've been a great match lol guy should be fired for that comment alone.

Inverdale should have been fired years ago, anyway. ITV's coverage is and always has been shocking for tennis.