Kei Nishikori plays his first official match in about 1 year and 5 months! Defeats a 21-year-old who is on the rise with a full set at the ATP Tour Lower HPP Open – Sponichi Sponichi Annex Sports

The singles final of the HPP Open, a lower tournament on the ATP Tour, was held on the 10th, where Kei Nishikori (34, Uniqlo), ranked 132nd in the world, defeated 5th seed Luca Nardi (21, Italy), ranked 102nd in the world, 3-6. He came from behind to win 6-4, 6-1, marking his first win in an official tournament in about 1 year and 5 months since the Caribbean Open last June.

Nishikori defeated 7th seed Jerome Kim (21, Switzerland) in the second round and 4th seed Jacob Fearnley (23, UK) in the quarterfinals, making him the top four ATP Challenger in the lower tournament for the second consecutive week. . In the semifinals, he defeated Max Hans Rehberg (21, Germany), ranked 332nd in the world, in all sets, and decided to advance to the final for the first time in 1 year and 5 months. On the other hand, Nardi, an ATP challenger with six wins in the past, scored a big win by defeating then-world No. 1 Novak Djokovic (Serbia) in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open on the ATP Tour in March this year, where he participated as a lucky loser. In May, he rose to a career-high world ranking of 70th and made his first appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros.

In his first match against Nardi, Nishikori was broken in the second game of the first set, but won the third game with a love game to break back. However, in the fourth game, when he made a double fault, he was broken again and was able to hold on, losing 3-6.

In the second set, she started with a double fault and was broken in the third game, but was broken back in the fourth game with three consecutive points at 30-40. In the 6th game, where they had a double break point at 40-15, they were held after 5 juices, but after holding the 9th game with 4 consecutive points from 0-30, they broke the following 10th game. The score was set at 1-1.

The third and final set, which started with a love game in the first game, was completely Nishikori’s pace. He broke in the 2nd and 4th games in quick succession and held on in the 7th game at 5-1. With his come-from-behind victory, he achieved his 8th ATP Challenger victory in total.

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