Kei Nishikori turned an awkward start into a comfortable victory when he opened Day Four’s proceedings on Centre Court with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 second round win over France’s Julien Benneteau.
In the third round he will play Andrey Kuznetsov, whom he dismissed in straight sets on the Roland Garros clay little over a month ago.
The No.5 seed has never quite seemed to reach the potential on grass that his game would suggest. Even though the surface helps one of his weakest elements, his serve, he has gone no deeper than the last 16 here in eight visits before 2016. Moreover, in his first round match he needed a medical timeout for treatment on the rib injury which caused him to pull out of the Wimbledon warm-up event at Halle.
Benneteau, meanwhile, is ranked No.547 – which is actually an improvement from the No.696 spot he occupied in January this year – having reached No.25 two summers ago. He played here on a protected ranking of 39, having missed eight months of the Tour last year after undergoing abductor surgery. The 34-year-old’s first round win over Illya Marchenko was his first match win here in three years, and his first Tour-level win since January last year, breaking an 11-match losing streak.
Early on this was an absorbing encounter, with close-fought games and Benneteau snatching the advantage in the opening set right at the death. But it was telling that in their four previous career meetings, the Frenchman’s only win came nine years ago when Nishikori was just 17; and besides, Benneteau was already battling those injury comeback odds, which had left him out of the habit of stringing consecutive wins together, and all the physical exertion that requires.
So in this joust, it was really no surprise that Nishikori gradually turned the ship around, undisturbed by a break for light rain so fleeting that the resumption went ahead without a warm-up.
Nishikori never produced devastating tennis, but with Benneteau fading steadily from that promising start and the Japanese dramatically reducing his errors as the match progressed, the job was complete in 2hr 36min – albeit one day later than originally scheduled, having been listed as Wednesday’s second match on Court 12 before the rain washed it out.
“He began well, it wasn’t easy,” Nishikori told the BBC as he came off court. “I started playing more aggressive and more solid, especially on the forehand. The rib wasn’t too bad. It’s a little bit sore still but I’m playing well. It hurts at times but it’s holding up well. I’m doing everything I can to recover, with the help of my team.”
Later, however, in his press conference, he was far less willing to elaborate on the injury – which strokes it had caused most pain to play, and thus which were now most improved.
“It was good, no problem,” he said, before adding: “My goal is to get to the quarter-final. That's going to be my first goal. I've been feeling good on grass, especially in this match. I started playing much better after the second and third set. You know, little by little I'm getting more confidence on grass court. Play one match at a time and hope I can reach the second week.”
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