Nishikori upset by Dolgopolov in final in Buenos Aires

Well done Dolgo.

Next Kei.

This was not expected!

Dolgopolov (and Ferrer) are drawn in the same half as Nishikori in this week's ATP 500 Rio tourny.

Thiem is the man to beat on the other side of the draw, but he's just played up in Rotterdam last week. This guy is always playing too much, wasting his talent. Hard to picture him flying to Rio, switching to clay and doing the business here.

Nishikori has the week off next week so us fans hope to see him give it everything in Rio and bag the victory!

Woof. This was a bad loss. I didn't see this match, but on paper it's a pretty bad choke job for Nishikori. In a tournament where he's the #1 seed, and the #2 seed was Pablo Cuevas (?!), that's a pretty big gap in talent level between Nishikori and the field. He avoided the world's top-tier players (who were in Rotterdam and Memphis this week) by going to a low-level tournament in Argentina. If he wants to take the step to the next level, he needs to be able to win these types of matches easily.

On paper he should have won, but it's hardly like Djokovic losing to Istomin or Murray losing to M. Zverev. Dolgopolov is currently ranked well below his ability (peak ranking of #13) and played a good week's tennis and deserved to win.

Here's Nishikori: “I’m glad to be here in the final. Unfortunately I lost today, but Alex played better than me," said Nishikori. "I didn’t play badly, so hopefully I can keep up this level.”

He avoided the world's top-tier players (who were in Rotterdam and Memphis this week) by going to a low-level tournament in Argentina.

That's nonsense. Nishikori is playing the ATP 500 in Rio this week - with his coach hailing from Argentina and the obvious geographic sense of the schedule, it would have been stupid to instead play the ATP 500 in Rotterdam last week (like Thiem who lost early).

As for Memphis (which Nishikori won 3 years in a row through last year), the top seeds were Ivo Karlovic and John Isner, the eventual winner turning out to be Ryan Harrison. The haters would just be saying the same thing as you had he played Memphis.

If he wants to take the step to the next level, he needs to be able to win these types of matches easily.

To take the step he needs just to perform well in and win a big tournament, not get his knickers in a twist over ATP 250 level finals.

Let's face it - win or lose in Argentina certain people were going to knock either way. He obviously would have liked to have won the finals he lost here or in Brisbane, and could have showed some more killer instinct against GOAT and eventual champion Federer at the Australian open, but he's in decent form and he's made a good start to the season.

fxgai: Dude, he choked... against someone some 60 ranks below him. That's all there is to it. Even die-hard fans have given up saying "This year is Nishikori's year" for the 5th year in a row.

"The haters would just be saying the same thing as you had he played Memphis."

People pointing out he lost badly are not "haters" just because you can't agree with them, my friend. When you learn that, and start realising Nishikori is not living up to the hype and awards already given him by the media and fans who think how he SHOULD be playing is more important than how he actually plays, you'll see that.

Readers, enough of this nonsense.

Ganbarre, Kei-san ! Otsukaresama. "The Dog" (Dolgopolov) is going to be great ! Love that style ! (shades of Gael Monfils) Go get 'em, Alex !