Novak Djokovic is still on course for his sixth Australian Open championship, but he sure didn’t look too convincing last time out. The World No. 1 almost shot himself in the foot with some uncharacteristic errors and needed all five sets to outlast Gilles Simon in the fourth round.
Djoker will need a more polished performance to overcome Japanese No. 1 Kei Nishikori, who has had reasonable success against the Serb in his career.
Get a full breakdown of this very intriguing Australian Open men’s quarterfinal matchup. Meanwhile, check out more Aussie Open action with our previews of Williams vs. Sharapova and Radwanska vs. Suarez Navarro.
Don’t look now but Novak Djokovic is showing some chinks in his armor. It began with his two hour-long sets against Andreas Seppi in the third round, and finally came to a head against Gilles Simon as the Djoker survived a five-set, 4.5-hour war in the Round of 16.
[sc:AUS15-250 ]Simon definitely deserves credit for pushing the World No. 1 all the way, but Djokovic certainly did as much – if not more – damage to himself. The Serb committed a whopping 100 unforced errors in the match, 22 more than the amount he committed in his first nine sets combined.
Djokovic’s recent form is definitely concerning, but it’s still not a very wise idea to bet against the five-time Aussie Open champ. Look for Djokovic, the -800 favorite to advance to the semis, to bounce back and make some much needed adjustments against Nishikori. For one, he’ll likely cut down on his ineffective drop shots, as one overly vocal spectator suggested.
Djokovic holds the 5-2 edge over Nishikori in terms of career head-to-heads, and has won the last four meetings in a row.
Kei Nishikori has had a pretty straightforward run thus far in Melbourne. He’s dropped just one set to date – against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the third round – and is coming off an easy straight-sets win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Nishikori’s serve lifted him in the earlier rounds against Philipp Kohschreiber and Austin Krajicek. He won 83 percent of his first serve points and 60 percent or more of his second serve points in both matches.
However, it was his return game that stepped up against Tsonga. He completed 5-of-12 break point opportunities, and won 43 percent of his return points.
Djokovic attributed some of his difficulty against Simon to the Frenchman’s counter-punching style. Fortunutely for Nishikori, he also plays a similar counter-punching style, which could give Djoker a few problems once again.
Nishikori has already tasted some success against the current World No. 1 seed in his career, particularly on hard court. Both of Nishikori’s career wins over Djokovic – in Basel (2011) and the US Open semifinal (2014) – have been on the surface.
Writer’s Prediction
Djokovic (-800) still isn’t his dominant best, but he does enough to beat Nishikori in four sets.
