HYOGO, Japan (AP)—Ivo Karlovic beat Kei Nishikori 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 to leave Croatia tied 1-1 with host Japan in the first round of the Davis Cup World Group on Friday.
Karlovic overpowered Nishikori with 18 aces in the day’s second singles. In the first match, Japan’s Go Soeda rallied from two sets down for a 6-7 (3), 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 win over Ivan Dodig.
“I tried to mix my shots a lot and not rally a lot with him,” Karlovic said. “I try to win as quickly as I can on every point and I was trying to be as aggressive as I could.”
Nishikori last month became the first Japanese man to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open since the Open Era began in 1968, but he struggled against the big-serving Croatian.
“I just couldn’t find my rhythm at all,” Nishikori said. “I had lot of unforced errors and failed to get into rallies. He served very well today. Against a big server, you can’t drop your service games so easily.”
Two errors by Nishikori in the ninth game sealed the win for Croatia and left the series wide open going into the doubles.
I’m not used to playing that kind of player, so it wasn’t easy for me,” Nishikori said. “My main weapon is groundstrokes but Ivo’s serve put me under pressure and I wasn’t able to take points off him.’
Japan is returning to the World Group for the first time in 26 years after beating India 4-1 in a regional playoff in September.
Japan is 10 places below seventh-ranked Croatia in the Davis Cup rankings.
Saturday’s doubles will feature Karlovic and Lovro Zovko against Tatsuma Ito and Yuichi Sugita, while Sunday’s reverse singles will see Nishikori face Dodig and Soeda against Karlovic.