By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, April 22, 2016
Kei Nishikori swept Benoit Paire, 6-3, 6-2, rolling into his third straight Barcelona final and extending his tournament winning streak to 14 matches.
Photo credit: Barcelona Open BancSabadell
Benoit Paire had seen enough, but Kei Nishikori wasn't done delivering more jarring shotmaking.
Watching Nishikori torment his second serve throughout the Barcelona semifinal put Paire in a grumpy mood. So when Nishikori, bouncing inside the baseline, slammed another backhand return down the line, Paire belted a ball into the seats in frustration.
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The reigning champion deconstructed Paire's second serve and drove the mercurial Frenchman up the wall with his drives sweeping a 6-3, 6-2 victory that vaulted him into his third straight Barcelona final.
Nishikori extended his Barcelona winning streak to 14 matches. He will play top-seeded Rafael Nadal in tomorrow's blockbuster final. Nadal scored his ninth straight win sweeping 10th-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber, 6-3, 6-3, in today's second semifinal.
Nishikori and Nadal have combined to collect 10 of the last 11 Barcelona championships.
The sixth-seeded Paire hit his two-handed backhand with damaging intentions upsetting Nishikori at the 2015 US Open and backing up that win rallying past the Japanese in the 2015 Tokyo semifinals.
Nishikori approached today's rematch with a clear tactical plan: Attack the Frenchman's weaker forehand wing and punish every second serve he saw.
The second seed put that plan into practice breaking for a 3-2 lead in the opener. The defending champion's sniper return game was a big difference: He won 21 of 32 points played on Paire's second serve. When the bearded Frenchman spit up successive double faults, Nishikori snatched a one-set lead.
A fully-stretched Paire poked a short-angled forehand to earn his first break point at the start of the second set. Nishikori saved it with ace out wide, eventually drawing a forehand error to hold for 1-0.
The match pitted two of the best two-handed backhands in the game, but Nishikori's creativity and ability to change direction on that wing was unsettling to the Frenchman.
Nishikori lured Paire forward with the drop shot then slid a backhand pass down the line breaking for the third time for 2-0.
Flying forward behind a backhand, Paire swept a backhand volley winner gaining his first break and pumping himself up with loud "vamos!"
That brief elation turned to deflation as Paire blew a 30-0 lead in the following game. When he slapped a backhand into the net, Nishikori snatched the break back for 3-1.
Paire saved his most dazzling play for the end. A drop shot dragged Nishikori forward where Pair played an outrageous tweener angled dropper to save the first match point. He erased a second match point with a backhand pass.
Intoxicated by the rush of the crowd buzz, Paire, who rarely requires any added incentive to go drop-shot happy, overplayed the dropper again, but still denied a third match point.
On his fourth match point, Nishikori put a forehand return at the Frenchman's feet capping a controlled 67-minute match for his 14th consecutive victory at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona.