Go Soeda sails through to the final; defeats Tsung-Hua Yang – Wuhai Challenger 2011
Top seeded Japanese Go Soeda prevailed over his opponent Tsung-Hua Yang, from Taiwan in their semi final encounter at the Wuhai Tennis Centre on Friday. Soeda managed to breeze through the match almost effortlessly, winning 6-4,
7-5 with his opponent posing almost no hindrance in the run up to the final. The ATP China International Challenger 2011 (Wuhai) concluded tomorrow, with the final match scheduled to start at 10.00 AM (local time).
The 26 year old top seed Japanese has had a fantastic season so far, managing to achieve his career’s best ranking of 90 in April this year. Currently ranked at No. 135, Soeda came into the tournament here with a season’s win loss
mark of 4-4. He has been playing mostly on the Challenger circuit but in the rare ATP tour outings, Soeda has managed to prove his mettle. He qualified for the first round at Wimbledon, the prestigious Grand Slam event, in June eventually losing World No.
16 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. China has been especially good for the Japanese player; previously he won the ATP title at Pingguo, China in March.
Taiwanese Yang has limited himself to the Challenger Circuit throughout this season, with his outing at Estoril being the only ATP Tour exception. Yang’s win-loss standing currently stands at the unfavourable 0-2 mark. He won the
Chinese Taipei F1 in July and managed to reach the semi finals at Chinese Taipei F2, Korea F2 and Brazil F1 at other times in the year. Yang’s quarter final match had been against fourth seed Danai Udomchoke, whom Yang ousted in a tiring 2-6, 7-6(12), 6-4
win.
The two set match saw both the players battling it out equally well. Soeda managed to route a win by firing 8 perfectly landed aces to expedite his opponent’s debacle. Despite serving at 64%, greater than Soeda’s 59%, Yang won
only 29 of his 45 serve points. The inform Japanese however grabbed 79% of his first serve points. However, the deciding factor in the match was Soeda’s ability to successfully convert 4 damning breakpoints send his opponent straight to the gallows. Yang fought
back with two serve breaks, one in each set, but proved inadequate to prevent him from capitulating under Soeda’s pressure. The top seed sealed the match swiftly, with clinical precision in a two set victory.
Soeda will now face South African contender Raven Klaasen in their final match, to battle it out for the Wuhai Challenger Title. Klaasen made easy work of Inigo Cervantes-Huegun in their semi final match on Saturday.
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