Roger Federer v Kei Nishikori: Preview of the Wimbledon 2019 men’s quarter final
Roger Federer will continue his bid for a 21st Grand Slam title as he faces world number seven Kei Nishikori in the quarter finals of Wimbledon.
Despite being the eleventh time the two men have faced each other, they have only met once at a Grand Slam. In 2017 Roger Federer got the better of his Japanese opponent in a five set thriller at the Australian Open that lasted three and a half hours. The 29 year old Nishikori did however win their last meeting that also came in London. At the ATP World Tour finals at the end of last year, Nishikori defeated the Swiss veteran 7-6 6-3.
Bidding to win Wimbledon for a ninth time and extend his own record of all time SW19 titles, 37 year old Federer last won the competition in 2017 after previously not having done it for five years. He has looked in fine form so far just dropping a single set on route to the quarter final. That set was his first one as Lloyd George Harris looked to be pulling off an upset in the first round until the Swiss maestro came back to 3-6 6-1 6-2 6-2. Successive matches have seen Federer win comfortably against Britain’s Jay Clarke and 27th seed Lucas Pouille, before demolishing 17th Matteo Berrettini in the fourth round at the expense of just five games.
Playing for the competition for an 11th time, Wimbledon is Nishikori’s least successful Grand Slam in terms of win percentage. The man from Shimane has only won 65% of his matches at Wimbledon, compared to being above 70% on the other three. It is also his least successful Slam in terms of quarter final appearances. He has only reached this far once before in 2018, where he lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in four sets.
The former US Open finalist did not drop a set in his first three rounds at the Championships this year, cruising past Brazilian qualifier Thiago Monteiro, Britain’s Cameron Norrie and American Steve Johnson. He had a bit more of a contest in his fourth round when he dropped the second set in a four sets win against Wimbledon fourth round debutant Mikhail Kukushkin.
The winner of this match will face either third seed Rafael Nadal or former semi finalist Sam Querrey for a place in the final.
Enjoy Wimbledon even more with our exclusive, 164 page, ‘Guide to Wimbledon 2019‘
To find out how to get tickets for Wimbledon this year read our 9 point guide here
For all the latest Wimbledon news before, during and after the tournament make sure you bookmark our ‘Wimbledon News’ section here
If you can’t visit the tournament then do the next best thing and read our guide on how to watch Wimbledon on television
To read more amazing articles like this you can explore Tennishead magazine here or you can subscribe for free to our email newsletter
