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Kei Nishikori and Ana Ivanovic among early fallers in New York

Japanese fourth seed’s hopes of making another magical run come to quick end

Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia celebrates after defeating Ana Ivanovic of Serbia at the US Open at Flushing Meadows. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia celebrates after defeating Ana Ivanovic of Serbia at the US Open at Flushing Meadows. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Mon Aug 31 2015 - 21:34

Fourth seed Kei Nishikori’s hopes of making another magical run came to a quick end yesterday as last year’s runner-up fell at the first hurdle, falling 6-4 3-6 4-6 7-6 6-4 to Frenchman Benoit Paire.

The 26-year-old Paire, having collected his maiden ATP Tour title last month in Bastad, brought his good form to Flushing Meadows, grinding out a three hour 14 minute victory to get the season’s final grand slam off to a shocking start.

“It’s always very sad to lose in the first round, but I think he was playing good tennis,“ said Nishikori. “I don’t think I played badly. Didn’t play great, but still, it’s never easy first match.”

Japan’s Nishikori, whose run last year included gruelling five-set wins over Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka and a shock victory over world number one Novak Djokovic, had looked ready to survive the opening test after coming back from a wobbly first set.

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But the 41st ranked Paire fought off two match points to take the fourth set tiebreak 8-6 and carried the momentum into the fifth set, where he recorded the decisive break to go up 3-2 before finishing off Nishikori with a thundering ace.

A three-time winner on the ATP Tour this season, Nishikori arrived at Flushing Meadows as one of the favourites to capture the year’s last grand slam.

After a sluggish start, the 25-year-old slowly found his rhythm taking the next two sets and then looked ready to advance after going up 6-4 in the tiebreak.

Mighty roar

Paire, however, swept the next four points before letting out a mighty roar as the match went to a fifth set.

“To beat Nishikori for me, was impossible to imagine this,” said Paire, who entered the match with an uninspiring 2-16 record against top-10 ranked opponents.

Earlier former world number one Ana Ivanovic was the first major casualty as the Serbian seventh seed lost 6-3 3-6 6-3 to Dominika Cibulkova in the opening match at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open champion and a semi-finalist at Roland Garros this year, fell victim to an unlucky draw as the 50th-ranked Cibulkova of Slovakia was ranked in the top 10 last year before slipping after an Achilles-related surgery.

“It was a very tough matchup, I thought, especially for the first round,” said the 27-year-old Serb.

“It’s definitely very disappointing because I felt like I did a lot of hard work over last few months. Over the last week, I had great preparation, lots of good training and everything.“

Qualifier

Cibulkova, a 2014 Australian Open finalist, will next face American qualifier Jessica Pegula, a 7-5 6-3 winner over Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck.

For Ivanovic, the result continued an up-and-down season. She reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros this year and was coming off back-to-back quarter-finals at US Open tune-up events in Toronto and Cincinnati. She also has lost three times to players outside the top-100 this year.