Top seed Kei Nishikori completed a Tennessee triple when he won the Memphis Open tennis tournament in straight sets on Sunday. Nishikori beat second-seeded South African Kevin Anderson 6-4 6-4 in the indoor hardcourt event. Nishikori clinched his eighth ATP Tour title in what proved to be his easiest match of the week. He dropped the first set in each of his three previous matches before battling back to advance. He needed consecutive tiebreakers to scrape through in a marathon semi-final against American Sam Querrey on Saturday, but took just 75 minutes to dust off Anderson.
Nishikori became the first man to win three straight Memphis Open titles:
‘It’s (an) amazing feeling because nobody ever done this before at this tournament, so it’s something special,” Nishikori said. ”But, you know, I think I have to do better to keep this, and hopefully I can keep going.”
Nishikori broke Anderson to go up 5-4 then served out the first set in 38 minutes for the fast start that had eluded him in Memphis. He dropped the opening set of each previous match here this week. The Japanese broke Anderson with a backhand passing shot he celebrated with a big fist pump to go up 3-2 in the second. Nishikori served it out, though Anderson pushed him to deuce in the set’s 10th game before the South African finally hit a forehand wide on Nishikori’s fourth championship point.
“Today’s match was much different than (the past) couple of matches,” the 25-year-old Nishikori told reporters.
“I played really solid from the baseline and returned really well.”
Nishikori became the first Asian man to make a Grand Slam singles final when he finished runner-up at last year’s U.S. Open.
Anderson has now lost six ATP finals since his last victory in 2012.
“Being in that stage a few times now in the finals, obviously you want to take it a little bit further, but it wasn’t there,” he said.
“I have a couple of other tournaments coming up now, so I can’t afford to dwell on this.”
All the big names from Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe to Pete Sampras, Michael Chang and Andy Roddick are on the list of past champions.
Nishikori improved to 13-1 at the indoor tournament, where Connors, Tommy Haas and Todd Martin failed to string together three straight titles. Now only Connors has more championships at The Racquet Club than Nishikori, who is tied with Haas and Roddick at three apiece.
”I think I am going to move here soon,” Nishikori said before accepting his guitar trophy.
Kei Nishikori vs Kevin Anderson, 15/02/2015, 21:10 GMT, Match Center
Memphis Open: Top seed Nishikori wins final in straight sets
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