Kevin Anderson booked his place at the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time on Sunday, defeating Kei Nishikori 6-3, 7-6(3) to win the biggest title of his career at the Erste Bank Open 500.
The South African, who improved to 44-16 this year, won 91 per cent of first-serve points (39/43) and saved both break points he faced to lift the trophy. Anderson joins Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Juan Martin del Potro and Alexander Zverev as players to have qualified for the season-ending event, held at The 02 in London from 11-18 November.
Appearing in his fifth tour-level final of the season, Anderson captured his second trophy of the year after one hour and 55 minutes. The 32-year-old, who also defeated Nishikori en route to winning the inaugural New York Open in February, improved to 3-4 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against the Japanese star.
The ATP World Tour 500 trophy marks the biggest title run of Anderson's career. Each of the World No. 8's previous trophy wins - in Johannesburg, Delray Beach, Winston-Salem and New York - came at ATP World Tour 250-level events.
Nishikori, also chasing a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals in London, was bidding to end an eight-match losing streak in tour-level championship matches. The Japanese No. 1, who last lifted a tour-level trophy at 2016 Memphis, remains 325 points behind eighth-placed Dominic Thiem in the ATP Race To London heading into the Rolex Paris Masters, which starts Monday.
With variation on his backhand side, Anderson finally moved ahead in the fourth game of the match after 31 minutes. The 6'8" Wimbledon finalist used his slice backhand to defend well against an attacking Nishikori and soon increased his aggression off the same wing to force a crucial error.
Anderson, after multiple errors on his backhand side when serving for the set, kept faith in the groundstroke and soon converted his third set point with another driven backhand to force an error from his opponent.
A tense second set required a tie-break to split the two finalists, with Anderson finding his best level on his serve and forehand side. The 32-year-old needed just one championship point to claim victory, landing his 13th ace of the match.
Anderson receives 500 ATP Ranking points and collects €473,865 in prize money for winning the tournament. Nishikori gains 300 ATP Ranking points and receives €232,315.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/2z5IXEi
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