Sacha Jones dodges upset against the Shiho Akita in the opening round – Pattaya Open 2012
Sixth seed Aussie, Sacha Jones, was tested to limits by the Japanese contestant, Shiho Akita, in the opening qualifying round of the PTT Pattaya Open. On 5th February, Pattaya City tennis fanatics
witnessed a classic three-set battle at the hard courts arena that was finally gobbled up by the Aussie tennis star with cumulative scores of 1-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Ex-Kiwi player, Jones, recently swapped nationalities in order to boom her career in a country that offers better infrastructure and facilities to tennis players. It seems like change of nationalities has brought a new luck
to her as she has been turning over the tables with some eye-startling performances; winning seven of her last ten encounters at the moment and still going strong.
Both players traded serve breaks in the opening two games of the match before Akita broke serve once again to take the lead. She further consolidated it with a successful serve game and mounted immense pressure on the sixth
seed. With two more successive breakthroughs in the following games of the set, the Japanese eased herself to an opening set win sparing just one game for Jones.
A complete turnaround was witnessed in the following set, with Jones launching an all-round onslaught. She held her serve in the second game of the set and won three back-to-back breakpoints to power down her opponent. A
stunning turnaround brought the crowd to life with everyone praising every exciting rally. Jones was not going to give up for sure and her determination to stay in the match after facing severe hammering in the first set is worth mentioning.
She was full of confidence and the winners that were missing in the first set were hitting the sweet spot of the racquet and landing at the perfect specks on the other side of the court to make it impossible for her opponent
to play a return shot. Set scores were tied at one set apiece and that called for an epic third set with momentum running in favour of the Aussie.
Both players held their respective serves in the first two games of the final set before Akita broke, against the run of play and flabbergasted everyone again with her outstanding ability to comeback from behind. Jones did
well to bounce back with a successful serve break in the sixth game before both players traded breaks in the next two games to push the scores to 4-4.
Finally it was Akita who committed a vital unforced error and lost serve game gifting the final set to her opponent who thoroughly deserved the triumph. Jones plays Yi-Miao Zhou of China in the final qualifying round.
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