Nishikori was a finalist at last year’s U.S. Open, taking second after his loss to Croatia’s Marin Cilic, who the Japanese player beat at the Citi Open.
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The Canadian opened the second set with a service break and held his own to tie the match.
After dealing with the hard serves of towering American John Isner in the Washington final, Nishikori was barely challenged by Andujar.
Nishikori’s win is his ATP-Tour leading 27th hardcourt win of the year.
Seventh-seeded Rafael Nadal, coming off a victory on clay at Hamburg two weeks ago, got his tournament started with a 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory over Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Nadal will face Mikhail Youzny, a 6-1, 6-4 victor over ninth-seeded Gilles Simon.
The Spaniard then suffered yet another early exit at Wimbledon as he fell to the lowly-ranked Dustin Brown in the second round, and he has looked a shadow of the player that has claimed 14 Grand Slams over the past decade. The coach understands that the dip is natural since Nadal has been “at the top of his game” for a long time.
“I’m very comfortable”, said Nishikori after an opening win over Pablo Andujar. “Six consecutive (match) victories, that didn’t happen very often during the season”.
Third-seeded Stan Wawrinka retired from his match against Nick Kyrgios with a back injury, and Jack Sock of the U.S.A beat Russian Grigor Dimitrov to face off against world no. 1 and top-seed Novak Djokovic in the next round of the tournament.
“That’s a positive moment for me”.
Second-seeded Andy Murray beat Tommy Robredo, 6-4, 7-5 in a rain-delayed match that started Tuesday night.
The British number one will next face defending champion Jo Wilfred Tsonga on Saturday.
Jeremy Chardy topped Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) to set up a third-round meeting with 2.1-meter Ivo Karlovic.
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In Toronto, Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko upset Garbine Muguruza, 7-5, 6-1, in the Rogers Cup.
