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Fumiteru Nakano and his exploits at Roland Garros 75 years ago came as a shock to Kei Nishikori after the Japanese star reached the last 16 of the French Open for the first time yesterday.
Nakano was the last male player from Japan to achieve that feat in Paris in 1938, the year when Don Budge pulled off the first grand slam of tennis.
Asked if he had heard of Nakano, Nishikori pulled a puzzled expression before saying: "No, sorry?"
When told he was the last Japanese player to get to the fourth round on the Paris clay courts, Nishikori admitted with a bowed head: "Sorry, I'm not good at the history."
But he soon brightened up to add: "Yeah, I'm happy to create another history and, yeah, happy to break another record."
Totally oblivious of the weight of history on his shoulders, Nishikori had just beaten Frenchman Benoit Paire 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-1 in a third-round match.
Seeded 13th, and enjoying the best year of his pro career at 23, Nishikori is playing in his third French Open after second round exits in 2010 and 2011, and finally appears to have worked out how to play on clay.
The Florida-based Asian star broke Paire twice in the first set, while dropping his own serve once, but he then quickly found himself a break down in the second against the Frenchman who has enjoyed a strong clay court season.
With both men struggling to hold serve, Nishikori battled back to 2-2 and there was a further exchange of breaks to get to 4-4.
Paire was left furious when he was hit with a penalty point for coaching at set point up on the Nishikori serve at 5-4, but he drew level in the match by easily taking the ensuing tie-break.
But it was Nishikori who looked the stronger as they got deep into the third set, with Paire struggling to stay the pace.
The Japanese player took that 6-4 and he raced away with the fourth against a visibly tiring Paire to reach the fourth round of a grand slam tournament for the third time.
Nishikori, who left his homeland for Japan at the age of 14, is at a career-best 15th in the world rankings and scored a tremendous win over Roger Federer in the third round of the Madrid Masters last month.
It has all started to come together for him and he says his next target is to break into the top 10.
"This last year has been getting better," he agreed.
"It was my first time to be top 20, and my tennis was changing. You need a lot of experience to be there, and I try to not make crazy mistakes and try to be there all the time. That's something what I'm working on still.
"I had a big injury in 2009. I had to pass one year without tennis.
"But I'm happy to be here now and this year is going well for me, so hopefully I can keep it going."
Defending champion Maria Sharapova reached the fourth round with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over China's Zheng Jie, despite an up and down performance.


History lesson confounds Kei Nishikori

Japan's Kei Nishikori on his way to a third-round victory over Benoit Paire of France. Photo: EPA

Sport

Tennis

Fumiteru Nakano and his exploits at Roland Garros 75 years ago came as a shock to Kei Nishikori after the Japanese star reached the last 16 of the French Open for the first time.
