By Chris Oddo | Monday October 24, 2016
Kei Nishikori advances past Dusan Lajovic to book his place in the second round at the Swiss Indoors Basel.
Photo Source: Swiss Indoors
Third-seeded Kei Nishikori opened accounts at the Swiss Indoor Basel with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic to book his space in the second round.
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Japan’s No.1 reeled off seven consecutive games from 5-all in the opening set to take a 7-5, 5-0 lead over the World No. 77 in their second career meeting.
Nishikori retired in his last event in Tokyo, but appears to have made a full recovery. The 26-year-old improved to 53-16 on the season and 36-11 on hardcourts and will face either Nicolas Mahut or Paolo Lorenzi in the second round.
No.4-seeded Marin Cilic was also victorious on Monday. The Croat took down Mikhail Youzhny, 6-4, 6-2, and could gain precious ranking points on Tomas Berdych if he goes any deeper in the draw. Berdych was upended in first-round action at Vienna by Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Two-time Swiss Indoors quarterfinalist is 290 points behind Berdych for the final ATP World Tour Finals qualification spot.
Donald Young (d. Marchenko) and Federico Delbonis (d. Andrey Kuznetsov) were also winners on Monday.