Japanese tennis ace Kei Nishikori kicked off his 2019 campaign on a winning note Wednesday, beating American Denis Kudla 7-5, 6-2 at the Brisbane International.Nishikori, the world No. 9 and second seed, fired seven aces and won 84 percent of his first-serve points to book a spot in the quarterfinals against 2017 champion Grigor Dimitrov.The 29-year-old Japanese did not face a single break point and wrapped up the match against the world No. 63 Bulgarian in 1 hour, 19 minutes."It was tough but I was able to play a good match," Nishikori said. "The level of my opponent dropped a little after…READ FULL ARTICLE
