Dusan Lajovic Kei Nishikori Stuns in Miami | ATP Tour

Serbia's Dusan Lajovic won the third Top 10 of his career Friday, beating his fifth favorite Kei Nishikori 2 to 6, 6-2, 6-3 to reach the third round of the Miami Open presented by Itau.

Lajovic arrived in Miami after losing in the first round of the five tournaments of the season. But the world No. 44, who beat Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas in his first match, found his place here, beating the Japanese star five times after one hour and 56 minutes. Nishikori led the FedEx ATP Head2Head pair 2-0 ahead of the meeting, winning his previous five sets.

"He definitely raised his level [in the] second and third series. He started playing more solid from the baseline. He did not miss much as in the first set. It served well in the end, "said Nishikori. Maybe I have not played quite my best today. Credit to him today. "

Lajovic could then meet the 27th seed, Nick Kyrgios, who will face the qualifier Alexander Bublik. The Serbs lost to Kyrgios in the second round of this event last season.

Despite his defeat, Nishikori is far better placed than he was at the same time last year. Eleven months ago, he had dropped to 39th in the ATP rankings as he continued to recover from a wrist injury. But he's qualified for the Nitto ATP finals and is currently No. 6 worldwide.

"I do not play badly or terribly, I try to keep my head up," Nishikori said. "The clay season is coming in. It's a completely new season.
I will try to train well, two more weeks and I will be ready for Monte Carlo. "

Earlier in the day, 19th seed Kyle Edmund needed only 70 minutes to send Ilya Ivashka of Belarus 6-3, 6-2.

"I sort of controlled the majority of the game," Edmund said. "It's a good player, you could say tinsel in a way that allows it to ignite at times when it can be dangerous. I notice that when he's in a game, he gets more aggressive, what he started doing and that's when he can be dangerous. So of course, it's good to win in a Masters [1000 match] and continue like this after winning last week. "

Edmund will soon face the semi-finalist of the BNP Paribas Open, Milos Raonic, who qualified for the third round when the German Maximilian Marterer retired due to a knee pain left. Raonic won his only previous FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting against Edmund two years ago at Delray Beach.