Teenager Kei Nishikori came out on top of an early battle of wills with Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Wednesday to move into a third-round matchup against Richard Gasquet at the Japan Open.
The 18-year-old broke Garcia-Lopez's serve in a first game that lasted an incredible 23 minutes, before going on to take the match 6-4, 6-4 with an assured performance at Tokyo's Ariake Colosseum.
Top seed and defending champion David Ferrer was made to work hard for a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 win over world No. 101 Jesse Levine, while tournament No. 4 Gasquet beat Martin Slanar of Austria 6-4, 6-2.