By Chris Oddo | Saturday October 6, 2018
All Kei, all the time.
That’s been the story at this year’s Rakuten Open in Tokyo as a resurgent Kei Nishikori has been virtually flawless in each of his first four matches. The Japanese superstar put forth one of his best performances of the season on Saturday to roll past France’s Richard Gasquet, 7-6(2), 6-1.
Nishikori, who is one of just four players to have won the Tokyo title at least two times, will bid to become the third player to have won it more than twice on Sunday when he faces Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the final.
Medvedev, who has yet to drop a set this week in Tokyo as well, cruised past Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, 6-3, 6-3, to book his third final of 2018.
Medvedev has won both of his previous finals this season, having triumphed in Sydney and Winston-Salem, while Nishikori will enter the final having lost each of his last seven finals at ATP level.
The World No.12 has gone 46 tour-level events without snagging a title, a streak that dates back to February 2016.
On Saturday Nishikori certainly looked like he is ready to end that streak. He was engaged from first ball and weathered a serious storm from Gasquet, who played extremely confident tennis in the opening set. Nishikori took control in the first set tiebreaker, snapping a run of five straight tiebreakers won in Tokyo by Gasquet, and used the momentum to quickly power to a 4-0 double-break lead in set two.
Gasquet managed to get on the board with a hold for 1-4 in set two but any further resistance proved futile as Nishikori scored the final two games to close affairs in a cool 90 minutes.
The World No.12 was dominant from the service stripe, pitching 10 aces and winning 32 of 38 first-serve points—he never faced a break point and converted three of his eight break points against Gasquet.
Medvedev lost his lone meeting with Nishikori at Monte-Carlo this season, but the Russian will have a shot if his form on Saturday is any indication.
He too was virtually flawless on Saturday, dispatching a fatigued Shapovalov with relative ease. Medvedev won 28 of 35 first-serve points and broke three times on five opportunities to improve to 1-2 lifetime against the Canadian. He was in control from start to finish and kept Shapovalov guessing by settling back behind the baseline in his return games—a tactic that yielded many opportunities and led to numerous errors from the other side of the court.