Miami Open roundup: Kei Nishikori, Milos Raonic and Rafael Nadal impress on a day of upsets

Rain continued to cause problems at the Miami Open on Friday, with matches being delayed because of frequent rain interruptions though there were no mid-match cancellations. There were, however, plenty of upsets on the first day of the second round’s play with eight seeds being routed in their respective opening round matches.

Here’s a recap of the day’s play in Miami:

Top-seeds stay on course

Second seed Kei Nishikori defeated Kevin Anderson in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and 28 minutes. The World No 4, who reached the final in the tournament last year ( and lost to Novak Djokovic), faced no break points and converted three of the six break point chances on the South African’s serve to see himself through. He will next face 25th seed Fernando Verdasco, who defeated American qualifier Ernesto Escobedo 7-6(9), 7-5 in their second round match.

Milos Raonic, who is making a comeback to the Tour after an injury delay, also reached the third round win a 6-3, 7-5 win over Viktor Troicki. The Canadian took the first set, and led by a break 3-1 in the second set, before the Serbian broke back to level the set at 3-3. A second break of serve on Troicki’s serve in the 11th game saw the World No 5 serve out the match in the 12th game. Raonic will play American qualifier Jared Donaldson in the round of 32, after the latter upset 28th seed Mischa Zverev in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.

Rafael Nadal and Philipp Kohlschreiber will face each other for a place in the fourth round. The former World No 1, and four-time former Miami Open finalist, defeated Israeli Dudi Sela in the second round 6-3, 6-4 in 81 minutes. Nadal saved both break points on his serve and converted two break points on Sela’s serve to advance through. Meanwhile, Kohlschreiber came back from a break down in the deciding set against American Taylor Fritz to win 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(4).

Litany of upsets

Nicolas Mahut and Guido Pella will play each other in the third round, after both notched upset wins over Steve Johnson and Grigor Dimitrov respectively. Mahut defeated the 23rd seed 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, while the Argentinian upset the ninth seeded Bulgarian in straight sets 6-3, 7-6(4).

Jack Sock led Yoshihito Nishioka 4-2 in the first set, with a break, before rain halted play when the Japanese retired from the match with an injury to his left knee. The injury looked to have been sustained during the match, and Nishioka had taken a medical time-out to get it treated.

Jiri Vesely will play Sock in the third round after getting a win over 19th seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas. The Czech won in three sets 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3.

Jeremy Chardy upset seventh seed Marin Cilic 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, while 30th seed Joao Sousa was ousted by Fabio Fognini 7-6(8), 2-6, 6-3 to set up a third round meeting with each other. Likewise, Benoit Paire saw off 21st seed Pablo Cuevas 7-5, 6-0 and Donald Young upset 11th seed Lucas Pouille 6-2, 6-4, and will next play each other for a spot in the pre-quarter-finals.

Federico Delbonis scored an upset over 15th seed Pablo Carreno Busta. The Argentinian dropped the first set, but bounced back to take a 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 win over the Spaniard. Lastly, twentieth seed Gilles Simon won just two games off Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, who upset him 6-1, 6-1 in 50 minutes. Delbonis and Struff will now face each other in the next round.

Zverev brothers advance, Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram exit

Mischa and Sascha Zverev won their first round doubles match against Dominic Thiem and Nenad Zimonjic in straight sets 6-4, 6-3. They will play Philipp Petzschner and Alexander Peya in the second round. Petzschner and Peya upset the Indian Wells champion and fifth seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram 6-3, 7-5.

Daniel Nestor and Brian Baker defeated Mate Pavic and Oliver Marach in their opener. Nestor and Baker won 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 11-9, and now await the winner between second seeds Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert, and Dominic Inglot and Florin Mergea.

Joao Sousa and Paolo Lorenzi defeated the wild card team of Mikael Ymer and Andrey Rublev 7-6(4), 6-1. Sousa and Lorenzi will take on the winner between Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi, and the fourth seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares.

The only Indian player in the men’s doubles draw, Rohan Bopanna lost in the first round as well. Australian wild cards Nick Kyrgios and Matt Reid defeated Bopanna and Cuevas 7-5, 3-6, 10-7.

The Croatian team of Marin Cilic and Nikola Mektic won against the Argentinian pairing of Diego Schwartzman and Horacio Zeballos, 3-6, 6-3, 10-7.