Raonic, Nishikori survive tests to advance
Canadian Milos Raonic has held his nerve to win three successive tiebreaks and send former Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka packing in the second round at Melbourne Park.
In a match lasting just over four hours that began under open skies and finished with the roof closed on Rod Laver Arena following a rain delay, Raonic triumphed 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (13-11) 7-6 (7-5) yesterday.
Switzerland’s Wawrinka, who won the Open title in 2014, was up a break late in the fourth set but it was the big-serving Raonic who finished the stronger.
‘‘That is hard to describe – it feels like four hours passed by in 15 minutes,’’ Raonic said.
‘‘In the heat of the battle, the adrenaline takes over. You try to do everything you can each and every point. I was very fortunate to stay alive in that fourth set.
‘‘I am thankful that it was indoors. I do a little bit better indoors than I do outdoors . . . thank you for raining.’’
Raonic’s third-round opponent will be Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who equalled his best grand slam result by upsetting last year’s surprise semifinalist Hyeon Chung.
Herbert won 6-2 1-6 6-2 6-4 against the No 24 seed from South Korea.
Eighth seed Kei Nishikori continued his unbeaten start to 2018, edging Croatian Ivo Karlovic in a super-tiebreak.
Karlovic served 59 aces in the match – but crucially just one in the deciding tiebreaker – as Nishikori prevailed 6-3 7-6 (8-6) 5-7 5-7 7-6 (10-7).
Nishikori will play German Philipp Kohlschreiber or Portugal’s Joao Sousa in the third round tomorrow.
Italian No 12 seed Fabio Fognini also benefited by saving his best for the tiebreaks, downing Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 7-6 (7-5) to set up a third-round battle with Pablo Carreno Busta, of Spain.
The 23rd-seeded Carreno Busta beat Ilya Ivashka, of Belarus, 6-2 6-3 7-6 (9-7).
Karolina Pliskova extended her winning start to the season by reaching the third round after a rain-interrupted 4-6 6-1 6-0 victory over Madison Brengle.
After dropping serve twice in the first set against Brengle, Pliskova completely dominated the second and third sets and capped it with a pair of aces.
She’ll next play No 27 Camila Giorgi, who beat Iga Swiatek 6-2 6-0.
Madison Keys, the 2017 US Open finalist, had a 6-3 6-4 win over Anastasia Potapova to set up a third-round match against No 12-seeded Elise Mertens, who beat Margarita Gasparyan 6-1, 7-5.
In other early matches, Elina Svitolina beat Viktoria Kuzmova 6-4 6-1, No 13 Anastasija Sevastova beat Canadian qualifier Bianca Andreescu 6-3 3-6 6-2, No 21 Wang Qiang Wang had a 6-2 6-3 win over Aleksandra Krunic and Hsieh Su-wei advanced 6-3 6-4 over Laura Siegemund.