Olympic bronze medallist Kei Nishikori has been eliminated in the third round of the Cincinnati Open courtesy of a straight-sets defeat to Bernard Tomic this evening.
The fifth seed took both sets to tie-breaks in a match that lasted two hours, but ultimately succumbed to a 7-6(1) 7-6(5) defeat at the hands of the Australian.
Nishikori, who beat Rafael Nadal to earn his place on the podium in Rio at the weekend, got the first break of the contest in the fifth game of the first set, and went on to have a chance to serve out the opener.
The world number seven even created two set points at 5-4, but Tomic rallied and broke back to force a tie-break, which he dominated with a 7-1 win.
The second set went with serve, but once again Nishikori failed to take advantage of three set points at 5-4 as Tomic once again hung on.
That also went to a breaker and, while Nishikori made more of a match of it, Tomic ran out a 7-5 winner to provide another shock on a day that had already seen Nadal crash out of the competition.
Barney Corkhill
