Kei Nishikori suffers sixth successive final loss

Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine, right, holds up the winner's trophy after defeating Kei Nishikori of Japan. Pic/PTI

Buenos Aires: Japanese top seed Kei Nishikori lost a sixth successive final on Sunday when he was defeated by Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 in the Buenos Aires clay-court title match.

Ukraine's tennis player Alexandr Dolgopolov poses with a trophy. Pic/PTI

The World No. 5 had already lost in the Brisbane final in January to Grigor Dimitrov which followed 2016 defeats in Basel (against Marin Cilic), Toronto (Novak Djokovic), Barcelona (Rafael Nadal) and Miami (Djokovic).

"I'm happy to be in the final. Unfortunately I lost, but Alex played better than me. I didn't play badly, so hopefully I can keep this level going," said Nishikori.