Kei Nishikori Scripts Second Five-set Win to Reach Third Round

Japan’s Kei Nishikori survived his second five-set match at this yr’s French Open on Wednesday, outlasting Russian twenty third seed Karen Khachanov in an exciting four-hour battle to win 4-6 6-2 2-6 6-4 6-4 and attain the third spherical.

The 31-year-old, thrice a quarter-finalist at Roland Garros, scripted a comeback win in opposition to Italian Alessandro Giannessi on Sunday and repeated the feat in opposition to Khachanov, enhancing to 26-7 in matches that go to 5 units.

“I simply tried to keep calm. Losing the third set was laborious,” Nishikori said in his on-court interview. “Playing aggressive tennis was the key to win.

“Trust me, I hate playing five sets. I’m not doing this on purpose.”

Nishikori wasted three breakpoint alternatives to take the lead within the deciding set and at last managed to break Khachanov’s serve to love within the final sport, changing his first matchpoint together with his 57th winner.

Next up for the Japanese will probably be Swiss world quantity 150 Henri Laaksonen, who ousted Spaniard eleventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut with a 6-3 2-6 6-3 6-2 victory.