Bernard Tomic beats Kei Nishikori to move into Brisbane Open semi-finals

In the semifinals, he’ll meet the victor of Friday’s later quarterfinal between second-second Kei Nishikori and local hope Bernard Tomic.

While John Tomic was again conspicuously absent from court-side, remaining an hour’s drive away at the family home on the Gold Coast, there is no missing Raonic in his rather ghastly fluro orange shoe-sock combination and matching right compression sleeve.

Nishikori and Tomic played at last year’s Brisbane International at the quarter-final stage, with Nishikori coming out on top in straight sets 6-0, 6-4.

But if the Australian was rattled he didn’t show it racing to a 4-1 lead before sealing his third win of the summer on his first match-point attempt.

Although Nadal’s game has been much improved since certain points of last season, I still like the Serbian’s odds of capturing the Doha title in straight sets tomorrow.

I see another tightly contested match, here, inviting me to try backing Bernard Tomic with the two-and-half-game spread, especially with the home crowd behind him in Australia. He saved many important points with his serve.

“Obviously I didn’t play my best tennis today, but I think he played good tennis, too”, the 26-year-old said.

Federer, the defending champion, faces Austria’s Dominic Thiem in the other semi-final while Tomic will turn his attention to the Sydney International, where he is the top seed and has a first-round bye.

It was the first time Tomic had taken a set off Nishikori after losing their past two encounters including a quarter-final defeat previous year. He would consolidate it with a hold to close out the opening set 6-3. I needed match wins against these high-profile players around the world. “[It’s the] first tournament of the year, so I’m not that anxious”.

“I’ve been working on small things to make me better, on hitting the right ball and with good matches and consistency comes the right mindset”. Goerges, ranked 50th, last reached a final in Dubai in 2012 when her ranking peaked at world No 15.