Kei Nishikori - Pablo Carreno Busta. ATP Australian Open Prediction (8 February 2021)

Nishikori is still far from the game he showed a couple of years ago. It seems that the Japanese tennis player is still troubled by various kinds of injuries, because of which he cannot return to his previous level. Nishikori is in 41st place in the world ATP rankings now, although he was once in the fourth position.

It is unlikely that it will be possible to return even to the top ten in the near future, given Kay's results this year. In two games played this season, Nishikori suffered two defeats - in the ATP Cup, the Japanese lost to Daniil Medvedev (2-6, 4-6) and Diego Schwartzman (1-6, 7-6, 0-6).

Carreno Busta only once gave in to doubt his readiness for the upcoming Australian Open. The Spaniard lost the recent fight against Fabio Fognini in three games (2-6, 6-1, 4-6) in the ATP Cup, although he was the favourite of the meeting before the match and he looked better than the Italian in previous games.

Carreno Busta confidently closed the other two fights in two sets at the ATP Cup - the Spaniard dealt with the representative of Australia John Millman (6-2, 6-4) at the start of the competition, and later beat the Greek Michail Pervolarakis (6-3, 6-4).