Japan’s Kei Nishikori ended a three-year drought by defeating American teen Alex Michelsen 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 on Tuesday in the first round of the Omnium Banque National in Montreal.
Nishikori, 34, had not won at the ATP Masters 1000 level since 2021 at Indian Wells.
“It’s been a long time,” Nishikori said in his on-court interview. “It means a lot, especially the way I played in the third set. First and second set, many ups and downs and I was missing a lot of balls. Third set, I was playing pretty good tennis, I think, good defense and, when I needed to, I was having good movement and playing aggressive. It was working really well.”
A former No. 4 player in the world in 2015 now at 576th, Nishikori needed 2 hours and 33 minutes to oust the 19-year-old Michelsen, ranked No. 55.
Nishikori fired 29 winners and converted 4 of 12 break points, to 3 of 4 for Michelsen, who had seven double faults.
“I just needed to keep believing in myself, that’s the only thing I can do,” said Nishikori, who has 12 tour-level titles. “To be aggressive, start hitting more forehands and backhands (down the) line. I think that started working well in the second set.”
In other main-draw matches, 16th-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia downed Canadian wild card Gabriel Diallo in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, and Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry needed three sets to oust Chile’s Nicolas Jarry 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 6-2.
Etcheverry was 4 of 8 on break-point opportunities. Jarry was 2 of 4, and his 38 winners and 15 aces were undermined by five double faults and 37 unforced errors.
Portugal’s Nuno Borges rallied to beat Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, while Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego won a battle with the Netherlands’ Tallon Griekspoor 7-6 (7), 5-7, 6-4.
Singles matches later Tuesday included 13th-seeded Holger Rune of Denmark against Canadian wild card Milos Raonic, American Frances Tiafoe against 15th-seeded Alejandro Tabilo of Chile and Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan against Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain.
–Field Level Media
