Tatsuma Ito downs Wayne Odesnik to reach semis – Tallahassee Tennis Challenger 2012
Fourth seed, Tatsuma Ito, stomped over the local star, Wayne Odesnik, in straight sets at the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger 2012 on Thursday. He formulated a 7-5, 6-2 victory against the South African-born to advance into the final four at this hard court
event taking place in Florida, United States.
Ito proved his class at the Forestmeadows Tennis Complex after overpowering the left-handed American in straight sets in one hour and 27 minutes. After earning this fame, the Japanese convincingly secured a place in the semi-finals.
The Japanese made a nervy entry at this ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event and suffered the first blow in the opening game, eventually falling 0-2. However, he did not panic after that and grasped his break back in the fourth
game to level the scores at 4-4. Ito kept remaining serves after blocking the only breakpoint he faced and capitalised on another break opportunity in the last game to pull out the opener with a 7-5 win.
Ranked 89th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Ito maintained his intensity in the following set and after earning the coveted break in the fourth game, he jumped to a 4-1 lead. After the sixth seed held his serve in the following
game, Ito wiped out the following two games and clinched the set with a 6-2 score line. The Japanese swiped in his entire serves without facing any trouble and converted two out of three break chances to his advantage.
Overall, the high flying Japanese produced a lower first serve share of 58 per cent as opposed to Odesnik’s 62 per cent but impressively marked 25 out of 30 points on it. He also smashed three aces and sealed the match with 67 points.
Next up for Ito is the ninth seed, Frank Dancevic of Canada, who stunned the eighth seeded local star, Bobby Reynolds, with a bagel to set-up this battle. The Canadian struck 12 aces and broke Reynolds’ serve four times to manipulate a 6-0, 7-6(3) score
line. He also jolted down a better first serve share and amazingly clinched 30 out of 35 points on it.
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