Montreal Masters: Nishikori beats Borges to make quarter-finals and continue remarkable resurgence

Kei Nishikori eased past Nuno Borges 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals of the Montreal Masters at Stade IGA.

It marks a remarkable resurgence for the former world No 4, who won his third straight match to put together his best winning run in three years.

En route to the last 16 today, 34-year-old Nishikori beat American Alex Michelsen and then stunned eighth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 ahead of victory today.

Nishikori, a former US Open finalist, has struggled with chronic injury over the past two years, requiring hip surgery in January 2022 before suffering multiple setbacks on the road to recovery.

But in Montreal, he has produced tennis reminiscent of some of his very best as he confidently marched into a deserved quarter-final place at tour-level event for the first time since Washington in 2021.

Kei Nishikori will face the winner of the match between Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Italian Matteo Arnaldi next.

In the previous rounds of the Rogers Cup, Borges, ranked No 43, edged out Serb Miomir Kecmanovic (5-7, 6-4, 6-4) and Frenchman Ugo Humbert, the No 12 seed (3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4)).

Montreal Masters 1000, other last-16 results (Stade IGA, hard, USD 6.795.555, most recent results first):

• Casper Ruud vs. Sebastian Korda
• Arthur Rinderknech vs. Hubert Hurkacz
• Holger Rune vs. Alexander Zverev
• Jannik Sinner vs. Alejandro Tabilo: saturday
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Alexei Popyrin: saturday
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. Matteo Arnaldi: saturday
• Andrey Rublev (5) beat Brandon Nakashima (Q): 6-2, 6-2