Tatsuma Ito gets upset by Taro Daniel in the second round – KEIO Challenger 2012
World number 321, Taro Daniel of Japan, made the biggest upset of the tournament by downing the top seeded Japanese player, Tatsuma Ito, in a one sided second round at the KEIO Challenger in Yokohama, Japan on Wednesday.
Daniel played amazingly well and looked unstoppable, allowing his country’s third best player to claim just four games and bulldozing him in straight sets 6-3, 6-1.
Both players made a stable start, as they held their serve in the first seven games to take the score to 4-3 in favour of the former. Daniel played almost error freely afterwards, as he dropped just a couple of points in the following
two games, sealing it 6-3.
The low ranked Japanese contestant banged in two aces and 57 percent of the first serves, pocketing 14 of the 17 points on them. The 19-year-old fared poorly on the first returns, as he lost 11 of the 12 points on them but he compensated
that by giving a good performance on the second ones, claiming four of the five.
After getting stunned in the first set, Ito made a very good start in the second one, as he won all four points on his opening serve to take a 1-0 lead. However, it was all Daniel show later on, as he secured six consecutive games
to capture it 6-1.
The unseeded participant, Daniel, fired two aces and did not make any double fault in the second set. Japanese participant kept his first serve percentage at 67 and secured amazingly nine of the 10 points on them. He also improved
his first returns this time, claiming eight of the 14 points on them. The right-hander did not face any break point and converted all the three he received.
Daniel needed just less than one hour to register this comprehensive victory over his rival.
The Japanese national is slated to take on the world number 387, Andrea Arnaboldi of Italy, at the last-eight stage. The Italian player made the second biggest upset of the event, as he beat the seventh seeded British player, Jamie
Baker, in the second round.
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