Nishikori made light work of Stan Wawrinka in opening group game
Monday 14 November 2016 19:09, UK
Coach Michael Chang is making Kei Nishikori more of an all-court player and adding to his game, believes Greg Rusedski.
The Japanese star avenged his painful US Open loss to Stan Wawrinka by routing the world No 3 6-2 6-3 in his opening match at the ATP Tour Finals on Monday.
Nishikori was denied a second Grand Slam final appearance in September when Wawrinka defeated him in the US Open semi-finals and the world No 5 got his own back with a dominant display at London's O2 Arena.
Despite being placed in a tricky Tour Finals group that also includes Andy Murray and former US Open champion Marin Cilic, Nishikori hopes to make the final of the season-ending event for the first time after reaching the last four in 2014.
And Sky Sports tennis analyst Rusedski says former French Open champion Chang is a great influence on Nishikori.
"You look at Kei Nishikori at the US Open when he was coming forward and you saw that again today," he said.
"He's adding to Kei's game and making him more of an all-court player and that's so important if he's going to beat the likes of Stan or Murray or Novak Djokovic.
"He has to come forward when it's right and he's doing it more so. Michael has done a great job and so has (coach) Dante Bottini and so has Kei, so it's a great environment.
"Michael is also very good tactically. You always see him on the iPad in the locker room looking at his opponents, looking at the patterns and doing all those other things. It's not only the mental, it's also the tactical as well."
Check our game-by-game coverage from all group matches at the ATP World Tour Finals in London - including Andy Murray - on skysports.com/tennis, our app for mobile devices and iPad and our Twitter account @skysportstennis.
