Kei Nishikori should be literally grateful for small mercies. At 178cm, in modern tennis terms a bonsai fellow, he has spent his first three matches in Melbourne looking up at his opponents during handshakes. It must get tiresome felling trees.
But in the next round he will be in the unlikely position of looking down. His rival is 175cm and his name is David Ferrer. Note to Nishikori: Bring extra shoes and shirts. This match will be decided by points won but also miles run.
Yesterday's elevated offering for the Japanese was American Steve Johnson, 188cm, the strapping son of a tennis coach also named Steve Johnson who tutored him till he was in college. But no collection of Johnsons could have defeated Nishikori yesterday.
The Japanese, the only Asian left in the fourth round, won 6-7 (7-9), 6-1, 6-2, 6-3. In boxing terms, the American had a longer reach but Nishikori, who moves like an electric current, was hard to catch.
The Open is almost at its middle and on reasonably cool days only the metaphorical heat is rising. The points at stake are more and the money (A$109,250 or S$116,175, just to get to the fourth round) is higher.
But really they're playing for the simplest reason: To get better. Even Novak Djokovic, who at No.1 has nowhere higher to go numerically, is trying just to be a better No.1.
Rarely do two players of equal calibre and equal ambition collide on court in the third round. Johnson, No.156 this time last year, is No.38 now. He does not need his mother, a maths professor, to tell him he is improving.
Last year he lost in the first round here; this year he got to the third round, all the while hitting forehands that leave faint dents on the court.
He is better, yet part of the suffering of sport is that right after a match, even if defeated by a world No.5, "better" is no balm. From Federer to Johnson, losing is an ache. "Tomorrow," said Johnson, "I will look at the positives."
Nishikori is operating on his own plane, playing fascinating tennis of accelerating intellect. He must move fast and think faster and he has done it well enough to rise from No.18 in January last year to No.5 now. But if life is better for Nishikori, then it is also harder.
"No.5," he said, which is not just a ranking but a status, "is a different feeling than outside the top 10 because you feel a lot of confidence but you also feel other things off the court. I think I feel more pressure than before."
He is, in Japan, a star, a celebrity, a hope, expected to play at an elevated level all the time. Staying great, he too is discovering, is more arduous than becoming great. As he said: "It is still not comfortable for me to be this ranking. I think I need more time to get used to it."
The genial Japanese reached the fourth round here last year so this win only equals it. It is not yet better. But at least yesterday we got a glimpse of this improved Nishikori. Confidence is sports' most spoken word because it is its most precious commodity.
We cannot feel a player's belief, but as with Nishikori yesterday, after the first set, we can sometimes see it.
In the first set, he was what he could not afford to be: Passive instead of patient, errant instead of consistent, and a tie-breaker was lost. But the son of an engineer quickly tinkered with his game and won 10 of the next 11 games.
He made 11 unforced errors in the first set, yet 13 in the next three and he returned more aggressively. He won 67 per cent of first-serve points in the first set, yet averaged 80 per cent over the next three.
Johnson, whose fastest first serve (215kmh) was 16kmh faster than Nishikori's, was eventually even out-aced 15 to 8 by the Japanese. Nishikori simply played like a man who believed he could do better.
"He is suffocating," explained the generous Johnson later. "He doesn't give you time to breathe. With that kind of confidence he can beat anyone in the world."
To start with Ferrer. Nishikori is ranked five places higher than the Spaniard. He has beaten him in their last four meetings. And yes, in a game of fine margins, he is three centimetres taller. Quite simply, he will be expected to be the better man.
rohitb@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on Jan 25, 2015.
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