Pliskova makes Miami Open semis; Nishikori, Nadal reach quarters
Karolina Pliskova has never found Miami exactly to her liking, until now.
The second-seeded Pliskova reached the Miami Open semifinals yesterday, beating 26thseeded Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-3, 6-4. It's the first time Pliskova has made the semifinals at Key Biscayne.
Pliskova improved to 23-3 this year, the best record on the women's tour.
"I'm really confident and enjoying every match," said Pliskova, who took advantage of 10 double faults by Lucic-Baroni. "It's my best tennis that I've played this year, here in the Miami Open."
Next up for Pliskova — who avenged a loss to Lucic-Baroni in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open — is Caroline Wozniacki or Lucie Safarova, who were scheduled to play Tuesday night.
On the men's side, Kei Nishikori rallied in the final set to beat Argentina's Federico Delbonis and reach the quarterfinals.
Nishikori, who was a runner-up in Miami last year, is trying to keep himself inside the top 4 ATP just before the clay court swing. Having to defend several hundreds of points, he sees his seat being threatened either by Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal.
Once again, Kei needed 3 sets to get past his opponent, a similar scenario to that of the previous round when the Japanese player edged Fernando Verdasco in a 3rd decisive set.
When a tennis match crosses the line moving into a decisive set, a hazardous feeling can set in. That's why most players, especially those having high hopes during a tournament, put in their best in order to avoid such a gamble which a decisive set could easily be.
But Nishikori seems to deal quite well with the stress factor and is getting stronger. Against Delbonis, he took the opening set 6-3. Some struggles in the 2nd one opened the door a bit for the 26-year-old Argentine as he made his move, winning the set.
The decisive set had its fair share of drama as it saw Delbonis breaking first on the opponent's serve. A huge upset was on the rise, a near-miss Nishikori eventually dealt with as he bounced back, winning 6-3.
For Nishikori, the hardest part is not over yet. In the quarterfinals, he must deal with #Fabio Fognini, a tricky puzzle with so many dead ends.
The 29-year-old Italian delivered strong tennis against the home crowd favourite Donald Young. A straight victory 6-0, 6-4 pushed the Italian into Miami's quarterfinals. In head-to-head stats, Nishikori won the last 2 matches, once on clay at Madrid in 2016, and once on the outdoor hard court at the Australian Open back in 2011. Against Fognini you may never know how things will settle, as the Italian can produce some highly-effective tennis.
Young's loss meant only one American man would reach the round of eight. That would be No. 13 Jack Sock, who beat Jared Donaldson 6-2, 6-1.
Later on also yesterday, Rafael Nadal beat Nicolas Mahut in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 to proceed to the last 16 of the tournament. Nadal had a good start and managed to secure the first set quite easily with a 6-4 score. Mahut proved to be more of a challange in the second set, with the Spaniard needing a tie break to secure victory.