World no. 9 Nishikori had a nice start to the Roland Garros. He advanced by spoiling Thanasi Kokkinakis’s return to the event with a resilient 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 victory, which saw him smash away 47 aces.
It was a great win for the 27-year-old Nishikori, who’s yet to really play on his usual level on clay this season. Although he’s boasting a 37-11 record on such a court in the last three years, along with three straight Barcelona Open finals (won in 2014 and 2015), his impact as of late is mild.
The bid for the Madrid Masters was cut short after his lingering wrist injury bit again, which was followed up by his career-long problems with Juan Martin Del Potro (1-5 record all-time). Then, this past week at the Geneva Open, he fell to no. 31 Mischa Zverev in the third round.
In matching up with Chardy, however, he has a good chance of erasing all of the struggles. He has won five of their seven matches, all of which were in straight sets.
Chardy, meanwhile, ranked at the 74th spot in the world rankings, did what he was supposed to against no. 81 Radu Albot in the Round of 128, as he was able to race to a 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (3) win.
With that, his rhythm for Thursday’s encounter should be a whole lot better and more dangerous, especially for an old foe like Nishikori. Though coming in as the underdog and the loser in all but two of their total meetings, his pair of successes over the Japanese were both on clay, which definitely holds a lot of weight.
His win in 2012 was a come-from-behind domination, where he lost the opening set, but proceeded to come out on top, including a 6-0 thumping in the final set, while the other was a classic straight sets, 6-4, 6-1 W.
Chardy is 77-87 on clay in his career, with one ATP title on such court (2009 Mercedes Cup).
