Yong-Kyu Lim downs the injury-stricken Takao Suzuki in round one – Shimadzu Kyoto Challenger 2012
South Korea’s Yong-Kyu Lim overpowered the injured wild card entrant, Takao Suzuki, in the opening round at All Japan Indoor Tennis Championships 2012 on Monday. He registered a 3-6, 4-5 retirement victory over the 35-year-old to book a place in the round of 16 at this synthetic court event taking place in Kyoto, Japan.
The 20-year-old displayed drastic performance throughout this 72-minute battle. He was trailing 3-6, 4-5 when his opponent was forced to retire due to an injury he sustained during the match. As a result, the Korean advanced into the second round at this ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event.
The world number 591, Suzuki, assertively entered the opening set and held his serve in the second game to level the scores at 1-1. After Lim held his serve in the fifth game, the underdog unleashed flurry of groundstrokes to wipe out the last four games successively. The Japanese blocked the only breakpoint he faced and cashed in both break chances to bag the opener with a 6-3 win.
Ranked 289th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Lim re-focused his strategy in the proceeding set and plucked in his opening serve in the second game. He maintained consistency in his game and held remaining serves until Suzuki got injured and was forced to retire after the ninth game.
Summing up the Korean’s performance on the Japanese carpet courts, Lim failed to cash in any of his break chances and was unsuccessful in defending both breakpoints he encountered. However, the youngster amazingly clinched 17 out of 24 points on his slightly higher first serve share.
Up next for Lim is the conqueror of the match between Taiwan’s Ti Chen and the fourth seed, Yuichi Sugita of Japan. Lim is looking forward to practice harder and improve his defensive skills in order to advance further in this tournament.
The third seed, Tatsuma Ito, will assist the Korean into the following round. He stomped over the Australian rising star, James Lemke, with a 7-6(2), 7-5 score line in almost one and half hour to set-up this battle.
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