Wimbledon News: Nishikori Survives Five-Set Win Over Bolelli

Kei Nishikori makes history yet again. He became the first Japanese player to advance in the fourth round of Wimbledon and it took five grueling sets to get there.

Wimbledon.com reports that Nishikori took care of a seesaw affair, dispatching Italian Simone Bolleli in five sets, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 triumph. The number 10 seed advances to the fourth round of Wimbledon and is set to face No. 8 seed Milos Raonic. He had some success in previous tourneys but has not made the final 16 in Wimbledon. Many expected Nishikori to cruise against the No. 132 Bolleli but the Italian proved to be a heavy match as he posed a challenge to the Japanese.

"This one was a very tight match for me because he was playing really aggressive and flat, both sides, especially the forehand. He was hitting a lot of winners, and sometimes I didn't know what to do. I was kind of like a yo-yo. I was running from side to side. I think on Saturday he was playing much better than me. But today there were some lucky shots. At 3-All I was down 15/40 on my serve. There was some luck, too," said Nishikori in the tournament's official website.

"There was a lot of stress these two days, especially yesterday. I never had something like this, after playing a fifth set, taking one day off, playing again today. It wasn't easy. But I'm very happy to win today. So hopefully I play another good one tomorrow," Nishikori said after the match.

Nishikori has 39 winners which were eight less than the Italian but he committed lesser unforced errors while Bolleli registered 41.

Nishikori or Raonic will be highly contesting a first appearance in the quarterfinals in their round four match-up. While the Japanese leads the head to ehad match-up with Raonic at 2-0, he will be heavily tested and the said match will determine if his skillset is up to par to advance given World No. 1 Rafael Nadal is expected to wait in line in the quarterfinals.