By Chris Oddo | Friday March 22, 2019
Kei Nishikori was bundled out of the Miami Open draw by Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic on Friday at the Miami Open. The former finalist fell 2-6 6-2 6-3 and finishes up the Sunshine Double with a 1-2 record after being knocked off by Hubert Hurkacz of Poland in the third round at the BNP Paribas Open.
For Lajovic, the victory marks his third top 10 triumph. Lajovic will face Nick Kyrgios in the third round.
As for Nishikori, he’s looking forward to regrouping and turning the page. The World No.6 says he will take extra time to get ready for the clay season—he’ll defend final points at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters in Early April.
“It's obviously tough loss from last week, not playing quite best,” Nishikori said. “But, I mean, I'm not playing bad or terrible. I try to keep head up. Clay court season is coming. It's completely new season. I try to have good practice, two more weeks, and be ready for Monte-Carlo.”
It has been a solid start to 2019 for Nishikori, who won his first title since 2016 at Brisbane early in the season, and also reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open and the semi-finals at Rotterdam. His record currently stands at 13-5.
Lajovic came to Miami desperately in need of some momentum and appears to have found it. He was 4-8 on the season but has won two in a row after defeating Pablo Cuevas in the first round before today’s triumph over Nishikori.
The Serb improved his lifetime record against the Top 10 to 3-14, with all three of those wins coming in the last year. He defeated Juan Martin del Potro last season at Madrid and Grigor Dimitrov in October at Beijing.