Nishikori retires in second set, sending Djokovic into semifinals

MELBOURNE—From the start, many signs pointed to a poor outcome for Kei Nishikori in his quarterfinal meeting with Novak Djokovic. As the two headed into this match, Nishikori had put in nearly 14 hours of court time, compared to just under 10 for Djokovic.

Then came the matchup factor. These two play quite similarly, proficient practitioners of contemporary, baseline, attrition-based tennis. The foundation for each is excellent footwork, laser-like backhands, occasionally whipped forehands and the ability to generate sustained depth. View Djokovic and Nishikori as racket-toting hangmen, exemplary at applying the noose to their opponents and then letting such criminals twist in the wind.

Said Djokovic about Nishikori, “if he's fit, he'll battle hard and he'll put in the fight, obviously wanting to win.”

But as all-time great Jack Kramer once told me, when two players play similarly, the better player is hardly threatened. He doesn’t win just 55 percent of the time. He will emerge victorious more than 80 percent of the time—unless the underdog adds new tools. True to Kramer’s insight, Djokovic had beaten Nishikori 16-of-18 times, the most recent a straight-set route in the semis of the 2018 US Open.

Number 17 came this evening, Nishikori retiring with Djokovic leading 6-1, 4-1. The cited cause was a right quad injury. From the start, Nishikori was a shadow, dropping his opening service game, subsequently unable to earn a single break point on Djokovic’s delivery. Early in the second set, the tally showed that Nishikori had committed 24 unforced errors to just eight for Djokovic.

“Before the match, I was okay,” said Nishikori. “I thought I was going to be okay. After third game or fourth game when I was serving, I felt pretty heavy to my right leg. After that I couldn't really bend my knees and couldn't jump up.”

The prequel to the injury, though, was the competitive stress Nishikori had faced from the start of the tournament. Usually, a top tenner has earned the right to expects a benign opening-round match. But Nishikori in the first round had found himself down two sets to love versus qualifier Kamil Majchrzak, only escaping when Majchrzak retired when down 3-0 in the fifth.

There followed two more five-setters, one won over that perpetually puzzling monster of a server, Ivo Karlovic, in a fifth-set tiebreaker; the other, another two-sets-to-love comeback versus bruising baseliner, 23rd seed Pablo Carreno Busta, also concluded in a closing tiebreaker that finished near midnight on Monday.

“I was moving a lot, waste too much energy,” Nishikori said of his efforts prior to tonight. “Could be from that and also, yeah, something happen today during the match.”

To pedal uphill in so many matches—particularly when the spectrum covers an unknown and concurrently fearless qualifier, a severely disruptive giant and a relentless groundstroker—is a surefire recipe for enervation.

“It's frustrating, of course, when you have that much time and you don't heal properly. But it is what it is. There is some kind of a reason behind all of this. I'm just trying my best obviously because I love this sport. I enjoy training. I enjoy getting myself better, hoping that I can get better, perform and compete.”

The speaker here had just lost earlier than desired at the Australian Open. But it wasn’t Nishikori, nor was it this evening. It was Djokovic, after losing in the round of 16 in straight sets to the 2018 man of Melbourne, Hyeon Chung.

Life looked quite different for Djokovic those long 12 months ago. There’d been an elbow problem that required surgery in February, the end of his foray with Andre Agassi, the return of coach Marian Vajda. From Wimbledon on, Djokovic has been virtually unbeatable, his game back to the oppressive level he’d attained in 2015 and the first half of 2016.

Addressing what it took for him to resurrect himself, Djokovic said, “it always has to start or go back to the very essence of why I play the sport: it's love and passion for the game. I think I had to really I think dig deep to kind of inspire myself even more after an injury and surgery. I did not plan to end my career, but different thoughts were going through my mind, without a doubt, that period. . .pure emotion got me going.”

Djokovic is now in the semis of the Slam where he has won nearly half of his tally of 14 majors. Six times, the man from Serbia has lifted the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, the trophy awarded to the winner of the men’s singles championship. The total ties Djokovic for most all-time, alongside Roy Emerson and Roger Federer. Having been through his own hell, he now stands two wins away from a seventh heaven.

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