Japanese No. 1 Yoshihito Nishioka takes on a confident Alexei Popyrin in the quarterfinals of the Adelaide International 1 on Friday.
Yoshihito Nishioka
The 27-year-old had a tough encounter to begin his season. He faced fifth seed Holger Rune in the round of 32. The Danish youngster had a great finish to last season, defeating Novak Djokovic in the finals of the Paris Masters to win the title. Rune continued in the same form and bagged the first set without much fuss. However, Nishioka bounced back commendably from the second set onwards and eventually won the match 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
In the round of 16, Nishioka picked up a relatively comfortable win against America’s Mackenzie McDonald in straight sets 6-4, 6-3. The Japanese star looked much better in this encounter compared to the one against Rune. In the first match, he committed 8 double faults but that number dropped down considerably to only 2 against McDonald.
Alexei Popyrin
The Australian qualifier has had a great run so far in the campaign that includes one of the upsets of the tournament. He made it to the main draw with wins against Zhang Zhizhen and Wu Yibing in the qualifiers.
In the round of 32, Popyrin knocked off another player who had a great end to last season, Felix Auger-Aliassime. The second seed lost the match 4-6, 6-7 (5-7). Popyrin produced another fantastic performance in the round of 16 against Marcos Giron. After losing the first set, the 23-year-old made a strong comeback to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. He has fired in 27 aces in the two games he has played so far.
Head-to-Head and Prediction
The head-to-head scoreline currently stands at 0-0 as the two players have never faced each other as yet.
Prediction: Yoshihito Nishioka to win in three sets.
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