The American world number 47 managed to hold his serve until the Scot broke it in the final game of the set to take it 6-4 and seal his place in the next round.
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But the 20-year-old – who also received a code violation at last week’s Japan Open – was unperturbed about a potential ban, even with the Australian Open Grand Slam looming at the start of next season.
In other matches, third seed Andy Murray advanced 6-2 6-4 over Steve Johnson and fifth seed Tomas Berdych survived 7-6 (7-3) 4-6 6-4 against Jack Sock.
Nick Kyrgios complained angrily about the ball boys during his straight sets win over Andreas Haider-Maurer at the Shanghai Masters.
The Australian is serving a six-month suspended sentence for sledging French Open champion Stan Wawrinka at the Montreal Masters in August and will be banned from the ATP Tour for four weeks should he accrue fines totalling $US5000 ($A6,840) before February 24. So I think it was a good match for my first match’. “I probably shouldn’t have done it. But I didn’t think it was too bad”. “I showed emotion, but at the same time I played great”. “He just stuck to his guns, he just kept making me play extra balls”, he added.
“That encourages me, gives me incentive to go out on the court and play the best that I can”.
“Thought I moved forward a lot in the match to try to finish at the net, but I could have been a bit more precise up there-maybe slightly better shot selection when I was up at the net could have made things a bit easier in the second set”.
Later he allowed his language to become more profane as he lost his temper with the court conditions and experienced umpire Carlos Bernardes felt the need to issue a code violation warning.
Martin Klizan will face world number one Novak Djokovic in the second round following his triumph over Zhang Ze, while Ivo Karlovic beat Jeremy Chardy to set up a meeting with Rafael Nadal.
However, the 27-year-old Spaniard gave the mercurial Frenchman a massive scare when he took the first set before going down fighting 6-7 (5/7), 7-5, 6-4 in two hours and 45 minutes.
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In two sets that went the distance, Nishikori fell 7-6 (12-10), 7-6 (7-3). “I just hit it”, he said.
