Nadal Wins Again In Beijing, Djokovic On Tap Thursday; Nishikori, Wawrinka Advance In Tokyo

by Staff | October 7th, 2015, 4:57 pm
  • 4 Comments

Former champion Rafael Nadal won another tough battle today beating Vasek Pospisil 7-6, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals in Beijing.

“I’m happy for the victory,” said Nadal. “It’s a victory against a good opponent like Vasek, which is good news for me. Every victory is an opportunity to play another day, one more opportunities to try to practise the things that I need to.

“Beijing is a very important tournament, a very important event, and I am going to fight for every ball to try to have the better result possible.”

Nadal will meet Jack Sock Friday. The American who plays similarly to Nadal just from the right side, crushed Andreas Haider Maurer 6-2, 6-1.

Nadal’s countryman David Ferrer also advanced, but Tomas Berdych fell in his opener to Pablo Cuevas 6-4, 6-4.

“I made one tournament title, the other one didn’t go my way,” Berdych said. “(I’m) just going to try to do well in the third one, my last one. It’s always a difficult part of the year. We have to travel a lot. The conditions are always very different, very difficult, week by week here in China. It’s not easy to adjust … It’s the same for all of us just ahead of the last and big tournament.”

For Cuevas it was just his second career Top 10 win.

In the women’s draw, Agnieszka Radwanska knocked off an ailing Madison Keys when the American retired down a set due to a thigh injury.

Angelique Kerber continued her fine play beating Caroline Wozniacki and Sara Errani and Timea Bacsinszky were also winners.

Five-time champion Novak Djokovic returns Thursday along with former French Open champions Ana Ivanovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova who clash.

In Tokyo, defending champion Kei Nishikori beat Sam Querrey 7-6, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals.

“Recently, the best thing about my game has been my service,” Nishikori told the Japan Times. “My first serve has been accurate. I’m not really the best at returning serves, and this was good for my confidence.

“We both held our service easily in the first set, and that’s rare for me. Some things didn’t work out and that can’t be helped, but overall I played a good game.”

Stan Wawrinka also was a winner defeating Ito in three sets. Former US Open champion Marin Cilic beat Donald Young and No. 3 seed Gilles Simon got through.

THURSDAY BEIJING SCHEDULE
NATIONAL TENNIS STADIUM start 12:30 pm
WTA – [Q] B. Mattek-Sands (USA) vs [15] R. Vinci (ITA)

Not Before 2:30 pm
ATP – [7] D. Goffin (BEL) vs F. Fognini (ITA)
ATP – [1] N. Djokovic (SRB) vs [WC] Ze. Zhang (CHN)

Not Before 7:30 pm
WTA – [6] A. Ivanovic (SRB) vs S. Kuznetsova (RUS)
WTA – [4] T. Babos (HUN) / K. Mladenovic (FRA) vs [WC] C. Liang (CHN) / Y. Wang (CHN)

LOTUS COURT start 12:30 pm
ATP – I. Karlovic (CRO) vs P. Cuevas (URU)

Not Before 2:30 pm
WTA – A. Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) vs [3] F. Pennetta (ITA)
WTA – M. Lucic-Baroni (CRO) vs [5] G. Muguruza (ESP)

Not Before 6:30 pm
ATP – [Q] J. Millman (AUS) vs [6] J. Isner (USA)


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4 Comments for Nadal Wins Again In Beijing, Djokovic On Tap Thursday; Nishikori, Wawrinka Advance In Tokyo

jane Says:

it’s very sad and concerning about the smog in bejing; some players have been having a tough time coping with the air quality. :/


Giles Says:

https://twitter.com/delpotrojuan/status/651444439685185536
Didn’t know where to post this. Encouraging message from Delpo.


Tennis Vagabond Says:

Good to see Rafa string a couple wins in a row on hard courts. Beat a quality opponent without dropping serve, that’s a huge improvement from his first match.


jalep Says:

What a great picture of Delpo — Thanks Giles! He looks great, really.

Worked Tuesday night and last night but just watched recordings because the matches had so much potential.
Beijing:
From what I’ve seen of Rafa — he’s playing good tennis. Nice win for him over Vasek :/ and doubt he has much more trouble with Jack.

Isner always makes me nervous but those are ghosts from the past really. Nole should be okay.

Fognini and Cuevas have met 3 times and it’s Cuevas turn to win. They each got a win in 2014. Fabs beat Pablo at US Open. I’m aware that Pablo is playing well but hope Fabs has another win in him (wouldn’t want Pablo to spoil a chance for another 2015….Rafa v Fabio!).

Ferrer v Randy Lu might be better than you might think. They meet once a year since 2010 either in Auckland or Beijing and h2h is 2-2.

Tokyo:
Kyrgios v Paire. What can you say. Could be a complete disappointment of a match –> interesting–> must watch fantastic. Still give Kyrgios the edge but who knows.

Battle of Gilles and Gilles. Simon is ranked 10 – have to go back to 2008-09 to find him better than that! Mueller appears on a great year for him too – ranked 42, close to an all-time high. But Simon is just better – unless injured, I guess.

Wawrinka v Krajcek. No contest.

Kei v Marin — yikes. Glad Cilic is playing pretty well this tournament. Kei is too. Should be interesting.

But the road to Singapore is so much more compelling than race to London ;) it’s true.

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