Monday 25 August 2008

Kei-Watch

Well the tennis has begun. Thanks to Sky and their interactive courage I had a choice of 6 matches. So I passed on Ferrer and went for my man Nishikori who was up against the 29 Seed Juan Monaco on court 13.

Nishikori was promoted to the main draw after Lleyton dropped out, but showed that he fully deserves to be playing with the big boys, coasting through the first two sets 6-2, 6-2, with the back hand looking particularly strong.

There was a bit of drama at the start of third. I was a bit distracted (and for 'technical reasons' there was no commentary) but from what I can see the Umpire got it wrong on the score.

At Deuce on Monaco's serve the Argentine won two consecutive points to wrap up the game, but the Umpire mistakenly scored the first point to Kei, even though it was clearly in. Monaco (understandably) was not amused.

As I say I was a bit distracted, but it then looked like Monaco appealed to Nishikori, and either Nishikori (or another official?) put the Umpire right, and the game was rightly awarded to Monaco.

This seemed to unsettle Nishikori and he was broken in the next game. He did manage to break back, only to be broken again when serving to stay in the set at 5-6.

Fourth set was more straight forward for Kei as he wrapped it up 6-2, but he did need to call the trainer, and so lets hope its nothing serious. Next up: Ryan Sweeting or Roko Karanusic.

Photo by: Hatnim Lee/usopen.org

2 comments:

freakyfrites said...

Yeah, I'm a big Kei fan - as much as I can be a fan of a yet unproven player who I've only seen play once. But that's when he took a set off Rafa at Queen's Club, so it was worth about ten normal wins on the tour.

I'm disappointed for Juan Monaco, though. He's one of my faves and he's had a bad year after starting strong.

Steve said...

Hey freakyfrites

yes that performance at Queens against Rafa, and beating Blake and (Roddick?) earlier in the year, are enough to suggest he is heading towards the top 10.