By Lauren Lynch
Photo Credit: Sean Bradley
(April 9, 2011) On Saturday afternoon at the US Men's Clay Court Championships, wildcard Ryan Sweeting stepped in to take out qualifier Ivo Karlovic 7-6(3), 6-3 for his first ATP World Tour final in Houston. Karlovic was not in top form today and said he was suffering from allergies (very common for Houston). Sixth seed Kei Nishikori of Japan grinded out long- rally matches against seventh seed Pablo Cuevas to win 6-3, 7-5.
World No. 63 Nishikori, who will have his parents here cheering him on for the first time in a final, has the advantage of having a 4-0 head-to-head series against World No. 61 Sweeting. He defeated Sweeting in 2011 in the Delray Beach quarterfinals in a three-set match 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4. 23-year-old Sweeting went through fellow young American Tim Smyczek, second seed Sam Querrey, Teymuraz Gabashvili, and Karlovic to get to the finals.
"I lost to him two times last year on clay," Sweeting said of Nishikori. "I'm not really worried about the past. I feel the path that I'm on right now now is a very good, positive one."
21-year-old Nishikori said that his new coach, Brad Gilbert, is working with him on a new serve and, until today, it had remained unbreakable. Nishikori has successfully defeated Franco Skugor, Igor Andreev, USA No. 1 Mardy Fish, and Cuevas. He will play infront of an American audience, against an American player, but Nishikori expressed that he has experienced positive support from the Houston crowd. Project 45 (Nishikori's nickname) is moving closer to his goal of being the top Japanese player and if he wins he could potentially move to being the World No. 41 on Monday. This would give him a career-high lead over Shuzo Matsuoka, who was the World No. 46 and No.1 Japanese player in 1992.
"I hope I can win and give them [the Japanese people] a little bit of hope," Nishikori commented on what the final will mean to the tragedy in Japan. Remember to check out Nishikori's causes to raise funds for the Japanese earthquake victims on Facebook or Ace Authentic auction.