Brisbane: Japanese star Kei Nishikori was in superb form as he demolished Jeremy Chardy 6-2, 6-2 in the men’s singles semifinals of the Brisbane International Saturday.
The 29-year-old gave his French opponent no chance as he put on a commanding all court display to advance to the final for the second time in three years.
After his impressive straight sets quarterfinal win over Grigor Dimitrov, Nishikori said he had set his sights on returning to the world’s top five after falling to 39 last April due to a wrist injury.
And he showed all the qualities of a top five player in his 66-minute demolition at the Pat Rafter Arena. The Japanese only served two aces compared with the 11 sent down by Chardy, but returned superbly and pressured the Frenchman’s serve throughout, breaking him twice in each set.
“Everything was working well today,” Nishikori said. “I felt like I was too fast on the court today – I felt very good.”
The Japanese who was runner-up to Dimitrov in 2017 will go into Sunday’s final against either fourth seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev or Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as firm favourite.
However, in the women’s segment reigning US Open champion Naomi Osaka lost her match 2-6, 4-6 loss to Lesia Tsurenko to bow out of the tournament.
