Danai Udomchoke loses to Go Soeda in the opener – Thailand Open 2012
Thailand’s best player, Danai Udomchoke, could not meet his home crowd’s expectations, as he lost to the world number 52, Go Soeda of Japan, in straight sets 4-6, 5-7 in the first round of the Thailand Open. This ATP World Tour
250 event, which marks the start of the Asian swing, is being held on the hard courts in Bangkok.
Udomchoke is ranked 145th in the world and he could not enter the main draw directly, that is why organizers gave him a wild card. They wanted to give chance to the local player and had pinned hopes on him that he would
put up a good show but that did not happen.
The Thai player went at par with his higher ranked Japanese opponent in the first four games, levelling the score at 2-2. A series of serve breaks took place after that, as Udomchoke and Soeda traded a couple of strikes in the
following four to take it to 4-4. The Japanese participant hit another blow in the ninth game and this time he managed to hold his serve, sealing the first set 6-4.
In the second set, none of the two players succeeded in breaking the other in the opening 10 games and equalised the score at 5-5. Soeda, once again, raised the level of his game at the crucial time, striking in the 11th
and consolidating on it to triumph 7-5.
The Japanese contender’s serve statistics were not that impressive, as he hit only one ace and made a couple of double faults. The 5ft 10in tall maintained his first delivery percentage at 61 and converted 25 of the 38 of them
into points.
Udomchoke was himself disappointed with his performance and for letting down his fans. The Thai player said, ''I knew I was the underdog coming into this match. I knew that I had to be more defensive and go for passing shots but
he returned so well and I made too many mistakes. It was very disappointing to go out so early.''
Soeda is pitted against the fourth seeded player from France, Gilles Simon, in the round two.
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