Go Soeda outlasts Malek Jaziri to claim the title – 2012 Green World ATP Challenger
In an epic final between the top two players of the tournament, Go Soeda of Japan proved his class and plonked Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri in a three set thriller at the 2012 Green World ATP Challenger on Sunday. He formulated a 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 victory over the
world number 104 to clinch the title at this hard court tournament taking place in Pingguo, China.
Encountering each other for the first time, the top seed unleashed his true colours at the beginning of the match and pulled out the opener with a breadstick. However, he lost his track after that and equalised the set scores. The Japanese raised the bar
of his game again in the final set and after breaking the Tunisian’s serve in the very last game, he grabbed the title.
Ranked 77th in the South African Airways ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour Rankings, Soeda blasted into the first set and winded up the opening four games in a row to go 4-0 up. In spite of losing his serve in the fifth game,
the Japanese stroke out the last two games and sealed the opening set with an exceptional 6-1 win.
The 28-year-old on the other hand rebounded in the following set. After losing his serve in the third game and going 1-2 down, Jaziri blasted powerful forehands and went on a four-game tear. He then kept his serve once more and clinched the equaliser with
a 6-3 score line.
The match could have gone in either direction at that point but the higher seed re-gathered his strength. He suffered the first blow in the third game but quickly counter-attacked in the very next game. Soeda kept remaining serves without facing any barrier
and cashed in another break chance in the last game to steal the show with a 7-5 success.
Summing up the Japanese performance at this two hour and 28-minute epic, Soeda manipulated a poor first serve share of 45 per cent as opposed to the Tunisian’s 61 per cent but magnificently availed 24 out of 35 points on it. The Japanese dusted away only
one out of five breakpoints he faced but converted six out of eight break chances to his advantage.
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