Hiroki Moriya battles past Prakash Amritraj into the quarter-finals – KEIO Challenger 2012
Fifth seed, Hiroki Moriya of Japan, made a strong finish to beat the world number 580, India’s Prakash Amritraj, in three sets 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-0 in the second round of the KEIO Challenger in Yokohama, Japan.
The Japanese contender reached the victory line in two hours and 15 minutes.
Beginning of the contest was stable, as both players held their serve in the first four games to square off the proceedings at 2-2. Moriya nailed a break in the fifth to move ahead 3-2 but the Indian player hit back immediately
to even it out at 3-3. There was no break of serve in the rest of the set, taking the score to 6-6 and forcing a tie-breaker. Moriya grabbed three mini-breaks and capitalised on all them of them to triumph 7-6(3).
The Japanese participant put in 64 percent of the first serves and converted 17 of the 23 of them into points. The 22-year-old was sluggish on the first returns, as he lost 20 of the 24 points on them. However, he balanced that
by claiming nine of the 16 on the second returns.
Amritraj made a good start in the second set, breaking Moriya in the very first game to take a 1-0 lead but he could not consolidate on it, losing his following serve to take the score to 1-1. The Indian player, though, hit more
blows in the fifth and ninth to close it 6-3.
The 29-year-old banged in a couple of aces and grabbed 11 of the 14 points on his first deliveries. The 6ft 2in tall fared pathetically on the second serves, dropping eight of the 13 points on them. The right-hander put away two
of the three break threats he came across and availed three of the four chances he got of his own.
Moriya did not come under pressure but raised the level of his game after surprisingly losing the second set. The Japanese player played almost flawlessly in the decider, as he did not allow Prakash to win even a single game in
the entire set, grabbing six in a row to seal it 6-0.
Ranked 188th in the world, Moriya banged in a single ace and the same number of double fault, claiming 11 of the 15 first serve and eight of the nine second return points in the final set.
The Japanese upcoming player will meet his third seeded compatriot, Yuichi Sugita, in the quarter-finals.
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