Chennai Open: Nishikori, Tipsarevic in quarterfinals

CHENNAI: Kei Nishikori and Janko Tipsarevic booked their berths in the Chennai Open quarterfinals, thereby ensuring a battle of baseliners in the last eight. But they both took completely different routes to reach there.
While the Serbian’s passage was comparatively easy as he brushed aside the challenge of Russian Alexandre Kudrayavtsev, which came in the second set, to win 6-2, 7-6, Nishikori had to battle hard for three sets to overcome a stubborn Alejandro Falla 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 at the SDAT stadium, Nungambakkam on Thursday.
"Nishikori is a tough player," said Tipsarevic about playing the Japanese. "He was a little inconsistent last year because of his elbow injury but it’s going to be tough in the quarterfinals. We both play similar style of tennis and it’s going to be a tough," he said.
Against Kudryavtsev, Tipserevic was barely tested in the first set but the Russian improved his serving considerably in the second set and proved a tough nut to crack.
"He was serving well in the second set but luckily for me I got a mini-break early in the tiebreak," said Tipsarevic, a semifinalist here last year.
Tipsarevic himself served well throughout and wasn’t really threatened during any part of the match. "I was very confident with my service game and I felt the closest he got with my service game was a deuce."
In the second match on the centre court, Columbian Falla was off the blocks in a flash against Nishikori and well in control of the game after being a set and two breaks up in the second. He was leading 3-0 in the second set when Nishikori started coming at him.
Somdev gets wildcard for Australian Open
Indian tennis star Somdev Devvarman will not have to go through the qualifiers to play in the singles main draw of the Australian Open as Tennis Australia (TA) on Thursday awarded him a wildcard entry into the first Grand Slam of the season. It will be Somdev’s first appearance in the main draw of Australian Open.