What man is the master of the deciding set (in terms of winning percentage)? First names that come to mind are probably the Big 3. Federer is just 23rd in that matter. Nadal is a little bit better and stands at the 9th position, while Djokovic is a very good guess as he’s the No.2 by a very slim margin. Next, you would probably go for legends of the game like Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver or John McEnroe. They all sit very close to the top. However, the player with the highest deciding set winning percentage of all time is, in fact, Kei Nishikori.
The Japanese samurai has a stunning 130-46 in third/fifth sets over the course of his career. He is an even better 20-4 on the Grand Slam level. He won ten of his last 11 Major five-setters, with the only loss coming to Roger Federer at the 2017 Australian Open.
Struggles this year
Nishikori has been struggling to find his form since the 2019 Australian Open, and one of the fields where this downfall is most evident is his deciding set record. After winning three of his matches at the first Major of the year in five, the Japanese went on to lose to Stan Wawrinka, Dusan Lajovic, Daniil Medvedev, and twice to Hubert Hurkacz, all in third sets.
Friday, Nishikori found himself two breaks down in the fifth to the 31st seed Laslo Djere, who is enjoying his breakthrough season on the ATP Tour, having captured a title in Rio De Janeiro back in February. It seemed like the Japanese man might have to take another loss in the decider, but he rallied back from a 0-3 deficit to take the victory in almost four-and-a-half hours.
Nishikori finds himself in the fourth round in Paris for a fifth straight year and will fancy his chances to advance even further as he faces Benoit Paire in the fourth round. Ironically, the erratic Frenchman is one of these four people who managed to beat Nishikori in a Grand Slam five-setter. (Paire defeated him at the 2015 US Open. The others to beat Nishikori are Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Andreas Seppi, and Roger Federer Federer). It will also be a great opportunity for Paire, who has just managed to string together an eight-match winning streak for the first time in his career and already has two clay court titles this year. Nishikori has a history of underperforming at the French Open and with Paire being not exactly the most mentally tough guy out there, we may very well see another tough five-set battle.
Main Photo from Getty
