Kei Nishikori Makes History At US Open Tennis

[Mulboyne]

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Penultimate game above; final game below.

[floatr][/floatr]AFP: Japanese teen Nishikori makes tennis history at US Open
More than two-and-half hours into a marathon US Open slugfest, Japan's Kei Nishikori sat down during the break between sets and pulled a small red and blue book out of his gym bag and started to read. Nishikori, who had just dropped two straight sets in his third-round Grand Slam tennis match against world No. 4 David Ferrer, studied the words carefully. "I was reading about what I should do in the match," he explained. "Such as stay calm. And don't get pissed off too much." Nishikori took the words to heart, beating Ferrer 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 7-5 in a thriller to become the first Japanese man in the modern era to reach the round of 16 at the US Open...The 18-year-old Nishikori is just the second Japanese to reach the fourth round of any Grand Slam in the modern era after Shuzo Matsuoka made it to the 1995 Wimbledon quarter-finals. By reaching the fourth round, he surpassed countrymen Jun Kamiwazumi (1973) and Toshiro Sakai (1971), who advanced to the third round of the US Open before being eliminated...more...

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[Buraku]

Surprised to see the mens do so great, its usually the Japanese girls who fight valiantly but often unsuccessfully against the Williams and the Sharapovas

Ferrer is an easier fight but I also believe Roger Federer is there for the taking
Nadal and Co have shattered the myth of an invincible Roger Federer

[Kanchou]

I like how in the press conference, one of the reporters (clearly a Japanese person) asked why the best Japanese player wasn't using a Yonex racquet... I thought that was pretty amuzing, since Yonex would probably be better off paying him to use them... they'd sell more racquets in Japan (where the profit margin is much higher since they retail for 2X what they do in the states).

Although, most pros are very reluctant to change racquets (the vast majority aren't using what they're sponsors claim they are... they're usually older models painted to look like the newest ones).

(the reason was he's been using Wilson since he was 10)

[Behan]

A boring claim to fame story:

I actually met him a year ago. My son was at the same sports academy (for only a week as we are poor) but on the baseball side and the staff took it upon themselves to ask Mr. Nishikori to help my son if he had any language problems because he was the only other Japanese speaker there. They dragged him over to my son's dorm room to introduce him.

[Kanchou]

I've heard that Bolletieri's academy costs something like $65,000 a year when you include boarding and the normal schooling... but that the only kids who actually pay for it are the ones who don't have top-level talent (the rich parents of the mediocre players are paying the way for the future pros).

Also, your son doesn't speak English?

I heard someone yelling "ganbare!" in one of the videos, haha.

[Behan]

I heard that Kei Nishikori was on a scholarship there. My son was at the cheaper baseball academy for a week. But the rabble shared some of the same facilities.
The figure you quote is several years' income for me.
My son's English is getting better but he still has trouble communicating in it. Actually, most of the kids in his dorm and in the baseball academy were from Venezuela, so he heard more Spanish than English. I thought that was a good cultural experience
He used to be baseball crazy and could mimic the batting stances of a lot of famous baseball players. I told him to do Cabrera's (formerly of the Seibu Lions) and when his Venezualan campmates saw it they all knew who it was.
The camp was almost a waste of money. The staff couldn't speak Spanish and there didn't seem to be much interaction among them and the kids.
Of course, sport can be an international language, but they didn't seem to interact much outside of baseball.
Plus, they didn't seem to give any attention to individual skill development.
But I guess it was good he got a chance to play hardball rather than the rubber balls that get used in a lot of youth baseball here.
I got the impression that the summer vacation program for little kids does not get the same attention as the programs for the kids that live there year-round. And the baseball program doesn't seem to be near as good as the tennis part is reputed to be.

[kamome]

Nishikori's run was fun while it lasted...Nishikori's US Open run ended by Del Potro