Rika Fujiwara defeats Ji-Young Kim in qualifying 2nd round – Hansol Korea Open 2011
Third seeded Rika Fujiwara defeated wildcard entrant Ji-Young Kim in the qualifying second round of the Hansol Korea Open on the hard courts of Olympic Tennis Courts in Seoul, South Korea on the 18th of September 2011. After 53
minutes of play Fujiwara won in straight sets with a double bread stick victory (6-1, 6-1).
Opening the first set was Kim, during the first two games both the players had won on their serves but in the third Fujiwara smashed an ace at 40-15 and broke her opponent first. She then kept on winning on her serves. During the
fifth game she again broke her adversary and by the sixth held her serve to secure her lead at 5-1. Wanting to break her opponent for the last time Fujiwara was looking for an opportunity. As her adversary served for the last time in the opening set, Fujiwara
seized the opportunity and broke her opponent to secure a 6-1 set victory.
Fujiwara was the stronger opponent out of the two and was not broken even once during the entire set. With a strong forehand and backhand play she achieved 89 percent of her first serve points, smashed a couple of winners and bagged
thrice as many points as her opponent’s.
Governing from the first point was Fujiwara, who opened the set, she then comfortably placed herself on to the score board and both players won on their serves. After that there was no stopping Fujiwara, as she powered through
the remaining of the second set and broke her opponent twice to see a comprehensive victory of 6-1 in just 26 minutes of the game.
Amazingly Fujiwara was not broken even once during the entire match and won eighty one percent of her total service points, with a difference of 15 points in the total second set score; she secured a place in the final qualifying
round where she will be facing Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova, who defeated Su Jeong Jang.
A Japanese professional tennis player, Fujiwara achieved her best ever ranking in singles in 2005 when she was ranked 84th in the world. Her most notable performance this year was when she won the ITF Kurume title defeating
Monique Adamczak in straight sets of 6-3, 6-1. Although, she is an average singles player, she is a good doubles player and her highest ranking in doubles was number 13, earned on the 11th of November 2002.
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