Meet Kei Nishikori, the Rising Star Who Stunned Novak Djokovic in US Open Semi

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: September 6, 2014

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It's possible that we just witnessed the official changing of the guard in men's tennis.

On Saturday afternoon at the U.S. Open, 10th-seeded Kei Nishikori became the first Japanese man to make a Grand Slam final when he upset world No. 1 Novak Djokovic 6-4, 1-6, 7-6, 6-3. He will play Marin Cilic, who also advanced to his first Slam final by beating a legend (in his case Roger Federer), on Monday evening.

“It’s, I don’t know, 4 o’clock in the morning,” Nishikori said moments after his upset, referring to the time back home in Japan, via Christopher Clarey of The New York Times. “But I hope a lot of people are watching.”

Japan was certainly watching, as was the rest of the world. Nishikori's breakthrough held great significance for all of men's tennis. At long last, we're seeing signs that the next generation is ready to take over from the Big Four—or, at the very least, join them on center stage.



For tennis fans, this Slam run has been a long time coming for Nishikori. After all, his tennis talent was spotted at a young age, and he moved to Nick Bollettieri's tennis academy in Florida in his early teens. He was a shy kid, and the fact that he didn't understand English at the time really made him keep to himself and focus fully on his tennis. That led to very swift progress.

At just 18, ranked No. 244 in the world, Nishikori qualified for the main draw and won his first ATP title at Delray Beach in Florida, beating veteran James Blake in the final. Later that year, he upset No. 4 David Ferrer in five sets at the U.S. Open and made it to the fourth round. That remained his best showing at this Slam up until this year.

Nishikori had many more flashes of brilliance throughout the years, but up until this week, his narrative was that while he was a great talent capable of taking down the big players—he had wins over Federer ...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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