PARIS: Japan's Kei Nishikori marked his French Open debut in style on Monday with a marathon 2-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2, 6-4 victory over Colombia's Santiago Giraldo.
It was the first win on the main tour for the Florida-based Nishikori since February 2009, after which he was forced to skip 11 months of action to nurse a stress fracture of his elbow.
Having seen his ranking slump to 246 from a high of 56 during his absence, the Japanese player appeared doomed to an early exit when he fell two sets down to the world number 58.
But he rallied and thrived in a 3hr 36min battle on Court Six to record a hard-earned win that gives him a second round match-up with Serbian third seed Novak Djokovic, the former Australian Open champion.
Despite his recent injury woes, Nishikori had arrived in Paris with some solid claycourt form under his belt, having won back-to-back Challengers on the surface in Sarasota and Savannah.
Nishikori caused a minor sensation when he first burst onto the scene.
In only his fifth tournament since his professional debut in 2007, he captured his first ATP title at Delray Beach in February 2008 to become only the second Japanese man to win a tour title.
Nishikori's US Open performance in 2008, where he reached the fourth round by beating then world number four David Ferrer of Spain, put him in the world spotlight and earned him highly lucrative sponsorship contracts.
His only other previous Roland Garros trip ended in a second-round defeat in qualifying in 2008.
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