Tatsuma Ito labours past Dudi Sela into 2nd round – Rakuten Open 2011
Japanese wild card enterant Tatsuma Ito advances into the second round of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2011 after rallying past Israeli qualifier Dudi Sela in a three setter mouth watering match on Tuesday. He registered
a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory over the Israeli at this ATP World Tour 500 series event.
Ito showed exceptional skills to triumph over the Israeli in two hours and eleven minutes at the Ariake Coliseum in Koto, Tokyo, Japan. Facing each other for the first time, the Japanese not only took lead in the head-to-head series
by 1-0 against the qualifier but also booked a second round spot.
The blissful local star, Ito made quick in-roads towards his maiden ATP title after reeling off first three games in a row. Although the Japanese lost his track in the following four games, he pulled out a 6-4 victory by wiping
out last three games consecutively. In this forty-five minutes set, Ito saved three out of five breakpoints faced and capitalised on three out of four breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to win convincingly. He also manipulated a slightly higher first
serve share of 57 percent as compared to Israeli’s 54 percent and registered an impressive 71 percent win on it.
After the Japanese held his opening serve in the second game, Sela switched to savage mode and reeled off next three games in a row before Ito could keep his serve again. The Israeli maintained his composure in the remaining set
and after holding rest of the serves, he clinched the equaliser with a 6-3 win. Regardless of clobbering a lower first serve share of 71 percent as compared to Ito’s 87 percent, he earned a tremendous 75 percent win on it. Mustering the set further, Sela saved
the only breakpoint faced and cashed in on the only breakpoint opportunity to his advantage.
The delighted Japanese with the help from the home crowd re-focused his strategy to set his course in the right direction. He got the first blood and went 3-1 up. Despite losing his edge in the very next game, Ito kept remaining
serves and broke Sela’s serve again in the eighth game to bag the decider with a 6-3 success.
Up next for the wild card entrant is the Australian Bernard Tomic who upset fifth seeded Serb Viktor Troicki in straight sets to reach this spot.
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