Crowd favourite Kei Nishikori and twotime finalist Milos Raonic both hammered out straightsets wins to reach the semi-finals of the Japan Open.
Nishikori, last week’s champion in Kuala Lumpur a fortnight after playing the US Open final, claimed his seventh straight victory with his 6-4, 6-2 defeat of France’s Jeremy Chardy.
Canadian third seed Raonic overcame a slow start and needed to win an hour-long first set before beating Uzbek Denis Istomin 7-6 (10/8), 6-3.
Against Chardy, Nishikori bounced straight back from an early break for 0-2, quickly returning to 1-2 to get it back on serve. A sellout crowd of more than 10,000 fans watched their hero break again for 5-4 before serving out the opening set on his second chance.
In the second set, Nishikori began with a break, raced to 4-1 before a medical timeout for lower back treatment, and finished off victory in just under 90 minutes as Chardy returned a serve long.
He now plays a semi-final against German Benjamin Becker, who defeated Jack Sock 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Fourth seed Nishikori admitted he was tired, but added: “You are never in perfect condition. But my back should be OK for the rest of the week. Conditions were tough with some wind, this was also my first match this week with the roof open. I had to get used to that.”
