Kei Nishikori has been Japan’s best hope since Shuzo Matsuoka, and right now, he stands a good chance of doing far better than his compatriot.  Nishikori has an intriguing style of play.  He’s fairly quick, has a good sense of how to hit a lob, but what separates him from most of his opponents is his ability to hit to the lines.  Where other players use raw power, Nishikori suddenly hits an inside in forehand, or he hits an inside out backhand up the line.  These angles cause his opponents to do a lot of running and if you’re not quick, say, like Berdych, then you can be stuck chasing balls and looking silly.

Nishikori found himself with a great opportunity to reach another semifinal (he last reached one in Tokyo) by playing lucky loser, Mikhail Kukushkin.  Kukushkin has lost in the final round of qualifying to James Blake.  But as player drop out, such losers often get back into the main draw.  Kukushkin found himself playing Donald Young, whose had a pretty good year, but made little impression on the Kazakh player.  In the following round, he faced James Blake, the man who beat him in qualifying.  Kukushkin was able to turn around this result with a straight set win.

The battle between these two players showcased their contrasting style.  Kukushkin is more of a power hitter.  He found great success pounding backhands to Nishikori’s backhand and pinning him to that corner and Nishikori either couldn’t get to the ball or hit too weak a reply.  When Nishikori would work the inside in angle, Kukushkin tried to punish him up the line.  Nishikori was pretty effective trying to lob when Kukushkin hit with power.

When Nishikori was on his game, he was moving Kukushkin around the court.  Nishikori’s angles often lead to winners.  The two traded sets as sometimes Kukushkin was more successful outhitting Nishikori, and sometimes he had too many errors and let Nishikori dictate.  Nishikori had an early break in the third but gave up the break.  Nishikori, who seemed the fitter of the two, broke again late to win the match: 64, 57, 64.

Nishikori will play the winner of Djokovic and Baghdatis.  Later on, Roger Federer will take on Andy Roddick, while Florian Mayer will play Swiss number 2, Stan Wawrinka.

Valencia

Gael Monfils was a long shot to qualify for the year-end championship, but he’s been on a roll, winning Stockholm last week.  He played a very close match with Marcel Granollers, including a marathon first set tiebreak that went to the Spaniard, 14 points to 12.  Monfils came back to win the second set, 6-3, but the Spaniard, playing on home soil, took the third set, 6-4.

Currently, del Potro is up two breaks over Querrey, 4-0.