Paris Masters 2018: Nishikori sets up Shanghai rematch with Federer

After an enthralling afternoon at the Rolex Paris Masters Round of 16 that saw some excellent wins by Alexander Zverev, Karen Khachanov and Dominic Thiem, it was time for the night session that featured two showpiece matches.

First up, it was Roger Federer, who was playing in front of the Parisian crowd for the first time since 2015, who took down Fabio Fognini in straight, 6-4, 6-3 sets in an erratic affair.

Federer started the match more solid of the two and broke in just the third game with the help of three unforced errors from Fognini to go up 2-1. Fognini then played another erratic game, helping the Swiss maestro take a commanding 4-1 lead.

But in the next game, the Italian suddenly found some fire and played a very aggressive return game to get one of the breaks back.

Immediately after that, he found himself down 0-30, but got out of that hole to keep it to just a single break as Federer started to miss some easy balls.

Then, when serving for the set at 5-4, Federer made a poor start with two consecutive double faults and found himself down 15-40. But with the help of a couple of easy return misses from Fognini, the Swiss got out of that game and wrapped up an erratic first set, 6-4.

The second set started just like the first, with Federer being a little more solid than the Italian, and after missing the break chance in the third game, the Swiss grabbed it two games later and then played a quick-fire service game to take a 4-2 lead.

But at 4-3, Federer played a poor game, making three unforced errors to go down 15-40, but came up with some timely big serves to get out of trouble.

Then down at 3-5, Fognini made an unforced error and two double faults and ended a very erratic affair from both players as Federer eased into the Quarter Finals in the end.

In the Quarter Finals, he will face Kei Nishikori in a rematch of the Shanghai Quarter Final, as the Japanese defeated Kevin Anderson in their second meeting in just five days, in very solid, straight 6-4, 6-4 sets.

Nishikori, who didn’t break Anderson even once in the Vienna final last Sunday, got off to the perfect start, breaking the South African’s serve in the very first game and then made a comfortable hold to love to go up 2-0.

After that, Anderson didn’t lose a point on serve for the rest of the set, but a single break was enough for Nishikori as he defended his serve extremely well and took a very solid first set, 6-4.

In the second set, both players looked extremely comfortable on serve. But at 3-3, Nishikori got a lot of returns, and put a lot of pressure on Anderson, earning a break point for himself.

But Anderson saved the break chance and the game with some clutch serving to hold on.

Then two games later, Nishikori again gave Anderson a run for his money on his serve, creating a few more break chances. And this time, he was not to be denied as he broke Anderson’s serve with a brilliant return to go up 5-4.

The Japanese No. 1 served out the match comfortably to get some sweet revenge and to book a meeting with Federer for a second straight Masters 1000 Quarter Final.

Nishikori would give himself a very good chance against Federer tomorrow, with the way both players have been playing recently.

But Federer often turns up against the best players, and if tomorrow’s match turns out anything like their Shanghai meeting a couple of weeks ago, we are in for a very entertaining night.