Tatsuma Ito pounces over James Lemke in the opening round – Shimadzu Kyoto Challenger 2012
Third seed Tatsuma Ito overpowered the Aussie rising star, James Lemke, in straight sets at All Japan Indoor Tennis Championships 2012 on Monday. He summed up a 7-6(2), 7-5 victory over the 24-year-old to book a spot in the second round at this ATP (Association
of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event taking place in Kyoto, Japan.
The crowd favourite, Ito showed brilliant skills and agility to oust the Aussie, ranked 354th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, in their first meeting.
The Melbourne-born thundered into the Japanese synthetic courts and went on a five-game killing spree. However, he stepped off gas after this and squandered several chances to bag the opener.
Ito on the other end took full advantage of this and cruised to level the scores at 5-5. The set eventually went to a tie-breaker and the Japanese dominated in it and clinched the set with a 7-6(2) score line.
The local star lost his track again in the second set and gifted away his serve in the opening game. However, he snatched his break back in the fourth game and held his nerves in the remaining set. Ito then capitalised on another break chance in the last
game and pulled out the victory with a 7-5 win.
All in all, the Japanese clobbered a poor first serve share of 56 percent as compared to the Aussie’s 74 percent but impressively availed 28 out of 39 points on it. Ito also saved four out of seven breakpoints he faced and converted half of the eight break
opportunities to his advantage.
Next in line for the third seed is the winner of the match between South Africa’s Raven Klaasen and the Australian qualifier, Matthew Barton.
Eighth seeded Harri Heliovaara will join Ito in the round of 16. He trashed the local wild card entrant, Shota Tagawa, in straight sets in 75-minutes battle. The Finn smacked 11 aces and required a single break of serve in both sets to earn the spotlight.
He will next face the conqueror of an all-Australian match between Samuel Groth and Brydan Klein.
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