Stefanos Tsitsipas played at a great level at the Paris Olympics, but his next event ended after his first match, as he was upset by Kei Nishikori.
The Japanese player has been playing a lot of tennis lately, at least compared to his standards, because he has missed so much action due to injuries in recent years.
Having him back is great for the ATP Tour and fans, because he is one of the most talented players we've seen in recent years, but terribly unlucky with injuries. His first match at the 2024 Canadian Open in Montreal was against Alex Michelsen.
He dropped the first set, but once he settled, he turned around the match to give himself a chance to play against Tsitsipas. With the way the Greek has played this year, it wasn't a matchup that Nishikori would have feared.
Nishikori's talent alone is good enough to give Tsitsipas problems, and this match proved that. The Greek played well in Paris on clay, but he wasn't able to translate that level to Montreal.
The first set was bizarre in a way because Tsitsipas served well. He barely lost any points on his serve and totaled 13 winners. The Japanese player didn't have as many winners, nor was he as dominant on his serve, but he still managed to break Tsitsipas twice, being quite clinical when he got his chances.
Simply when he needed to, Nishikori easily outplayed his opponent, who didn't know what to do. Tsitsipas also didn't use his chances even though he had more than Nishikori had.
That has happened to him before, and he's still having the same problems. The second set wasn't similar to the first because this time around, Nishikori could largely withstand Tsitispas pretty well.
The Greek wasn't as dominant on his serve as in the first set, and Nishikori certainly did better in adapting to Tsitsipas' style. That was particularly noticeable on the Japanese player's serve, where Tsitsipas couldn't create any kind of pressure.
Nishikori isn't known as the most dominant server, but he could still avoid giving his opponent any break chances. It was a nice throwback performance from him, but his opponent has also struggled a lot.
The Japanese could largely outplay the Greek, who couldn't trouble his opponent outside of his serve. The final score in this match was 6-4, 6-4, as Nishikori finished with 13 winners and 14 unforced errors.
His opponent outshone him in that regard, with 21 winners and ten unforced errors, but that wasn't enough as Nishikori moved on to the next round.
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