Kei Nishikori plays Pablo Cuevas for a place in the Houston final later today.
Nishikori took advantage of a poor performance from Mardy Fish on Friday night as he outplayed the top seed 6-3, 6-2 in their quarter-final. Nishikori was solid but did not have to do too much as Fish self-destructed with an erratic display. The American never looked comfortable as he peppered the Nishikori backhand without success and eventually ran out of ideas.
"I don't think [Mardy] played great today," Nishikori said afterwards. "He missed a lot. I played good enough to beat him and played good clay court tennis. I was trying to run him around and hit hard to his forehand. I returned well today."
Cuevas continued his impressive recent form with a 1-6, 7-6, 6-3 win over third seed and doubles partner Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. The Spaniard had his chances but let Cuevas back into the match in the second set and the momentum slowly shifted his way.
Prediction: Nishikori to advance to the final in two
