Wimbledon: Kei Nishikori, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga advance to third round
Kei Nishikori and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won their respective matches to advance to the third round of Wimbledon.
Kei Nishikori dug deep to keep his Wimbledon challenge alive as the Japanese star ground out a 6-4, 6-7 (7/9), 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) win over Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky on Wednesday.
Despite reaching at least the quarter-finals of the other three Grand Slams, Nishikori has never been past the fourth round at Wimbledon.
The world number nine was pushed hard by Stakhovsky, who famously stunned Roger Federer at Wimbledon three years.
But Nishikori, 27, ignored the searing heat on Court One eventually prevailed in three hours and 15 minutes.
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Former US Open finalist Nishikori faces Spanish 18th seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the third round as he aims to make the last 16 for the third time.
Plagued by an invasion of flying ants at Wimbledon, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga admitted the insect attack had got up his nose. Tsonga was bothered by the annoying bugs throughout his 6-1, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Simone Bolelli in the second round.
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Several other players were also seen swatting away the ants, but French 12th seed Tsonga had an especially intimate encounter when one flew up his nose and another into his ear.
“That was strange. I had a few experiences in the United States sometimes. With the light at night sometimes you have big bugs. Or in Australia also you have these kind of things,” he said.
“But this was a little bit different, because these ones was very small but a lot. So it was special sometimes, it was in my nose and in my ear.”
