Go Soeda cruises past Kamil Capkovic to reach the quarters – Honolulu Challenger
Top seed, Go Soeda, proved his class after stomping over the Slovakian competitor, Kamil Capkovic, in straight sets at the Honolulu Challenger 2012 on Thursday. He registered a 6-3, 6-2 victory over the 25-year-old Slovak to book a spot in the final eight at this ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event taking place on the hard courts in Honolulu, United States.
The highest ranked player of the tournament showed top-class performance at the Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park Tennis Complex. He not only avenged his loss at the Beijing Challenger last year but also advanced into the quarter-finals in this tournament.
Ranked 99th in the South African Airways ATP World Rankings, Soeda assertively entered the opening set and held his serve in the first game to take the initial lead. Later, the Japanese drew the first blood in the fourth game and regardless of losing his serve in the following game, he capitalised on another break opportunity in the sixth game and eventually clinched the opener with a 6-3 score line.
He manifested almost an equal first serve share of 59 percent and cashed in half of the four break opportunities. On the other hand, he lost his serve once and clicked tremendous 12 out of 16 points on his first serve.
The Japanese rising star kept his rhythm into the second set. After Capkovic held his serve in the third game, Soeda unveiled his true colours and stroked out the last five games successively, ultimately sealing the set by winning six games to two.
He formulated a poor first serve share this time but converted both breakpoint chances to his advantage. Soeda also displayed magnificent defensive skills after saving all the breakpoints he came across.
Overall, the Japanese broke his foe’s serve four times to prevail. He also spilled fewer errors and finished the match with 62 points in an hour and 13 minutes.
Up next for the Japanese is the winner of an all-American battle between the fifth seed Michael Yani and the wild card Jack Sock.
Soeda’s compatriot, Tatsuma Ito, will accompany him in the last eight. The third seed battled past the Canadian challenger, Peter Polansky, in three sets to reach this spot. He played poorly against the Canadian but after capitalising on seven break chances, Ito registered a 6-4, 2-6, 6-0 success. He will square off against the American, Denis Kudla, who overpowered Michael Venus of New Zealand to set-up this meeting.
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