Kei Nishikori shown last year during the US Open. Matthew Stockman / Getty Images / AFP / August 30, 2014
Kei Nishikori shown last year during the US Open. Matthew Stockman / Getty Images / AFP / August 30, 2014

Kei Nishikori doing ‘the same things like last year’ to get back to US Open final



Japanese fourth seed Kei Nishikori, last year’s US Open runner-up, makes another bid to become the first Asian man to win a grand slam singles title starting Monday.

The 25-year-old winner of 10 ATP titles will begin his run Monday morning at Louis Armstrong Stadium against Benoit Paire, having beaten the Frenchman in both prior meetings, most recently in the third round at the 2013 French Open.

“I believe in myself,” Nishikori said. “This past four, five years I try to believe myself to be top 10 and now I’m top 10. So little by little I try to claim this big challenge. I’m very proud I’m No 1 in Asia right now and I hope I can keep going.”

Nishikori faces a potential quarter-final rematch of last year's US Open final with Croatian ninth seed Marin Cilic, who won his first grand slam title with the victory, and could meet world No 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the semi-finals.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” Nishikori said. “From last year at this time I stepped one up and I raised my level, so I’m very happy with everything this year.”

Nishikori has won titles this year at Memphis, Barcelona and Washington. Last year after his US Open final run, Nishikori won titles at Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo.

“It was really disappointing to lose in a final but at the same time it was a great experience and I learned a lot of things from last year’s US Open,” he said. “I won two tournaments in a row right after. I very much appreciate this time last year and I played really well after that.”

Nishikori avenged his US Open final loss to Cilic in a rematch on his way to the Washington title earlier this month but he knows the US Open this year is a whole new challenge and last year is but a nice memory.

“It’s going to be a big challenge for me to play this year again, but I’m very confident,” Nishikori said. “This is a new US Open. I know how to go tough in final again, so I’ll try to play one match at a time and focus on myself and what I have to do on the court.”

Nishikori is hoping for luck to repeat itself so he’s changing as little as possible from his 2014 US Open routine.

“I’m staying in the same hotel with the same team again. I think it’s very important to do the same things like last year,” Nishikori said. “I was doing really well last year so I try to prepare like last year and just play good tennis.

“There are some new things. But on the court it’s all the same. I have to play good tennis to beat those strong guys, especially top-10 guys. Pretty tough.”

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The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

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The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.

The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.

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Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad. 

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Director: Tom Tykwer

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Family: Parents and four sisters

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