Kei Nishikori battles past Go Soeda into the second round – Rakuten Japan Open 2012
Japan’s best player, Kei Nishikori, dug deep to beat his compatriot, Go Soeda, in the first round of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo on Tuesday.
It was a clash between the number one, Nishikori, and number two, Soeda, Japanese players, with the former winning the contest after bouncing back from a deficit of one set. After a close fight of two hours and 29 minutes, final
score was 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in Nishikori’s favour.
Both players were stable at the beginning, as they held their serve in the first four games to take the score to 2-2. The following four went in exactly opposite way, as none of the two players managed to hold but the proceedings
got levelled once again and this time it was at 4-4. Soeda saved four break points in the ninth game and then capitalised on the second opportunity of his own in the 10th one, sealing it 6-4.
Nishikori and Soeda started the second set by holding their opening serves, squaring off the score at 1-1. The higher ranked Japanese player struck in the third and fifth game to gain a 4-1 lead. Soeda pulled one back in the sixth
to reduce the trail to 2-4 but he lost two back to back after that, going down 2-6.
In a similar fashion to the second set, both players captured their serve in the first two games of the decider. Nishikori managed to clinch a breakthrough in the third and consolidated on it to go up 3-1. Serving to stay in the
match at 3-5, Soeda faltered under pressure, losing his serve and with it the set 3-6.
Nishikori hit a couple of aces and committed the same number of double faults, maintaining a first serve percentage of 63 and claiming 41 of the 64 points on them. In comparison, Soeda bombarded six aces on Nishikori but he was
unable to save seven of the 19 break points he faced in the match.
The Japanese number one accepted that he and Soeda were under pressure during the contest. He stated, "We were both nervous and it felt awkward. From the second set, I loosened up and we had good rallies. If I keep going like this,
I can do well here."
Soeda was not disappointed because he did his part by playing bravely. The 28-year-old shared, "I gave it all I had. Even though I lost, I feel fresh. I think this showed that we're on a high level."
Nishikori will face former world number five, Tommy Robredo of Spain, in the round two.
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