KUALA LUMPUR: Top seed Kei Nishikori fought to beat Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 yesterday to make it into his first Malaysian Open final.
The Japanese hotshot will now face France’s fourth seeded Julien Benneteau, who continued his sterling run in the competition with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of second seed Ernests Gulbis.
Nishikori, who drew a 5,000 sell-out crowd at the Putra Stadium in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, put in a commanding show for most of the game’s 137 minutes.
Nishikori, who in the recent US Open became the first Asian man to make a Grand Slam singles final, may not have an easy battle in the Malaysian Open final as he comes up against nine-time singles finalist Benneteau.
The world’s 28th ranked player defeated Latvia’s Gulbis, who ranks 13th, courtesy of some phenomenal court coverage and work-rate of the highest level. — AFP