Yuichi Sugita trounces Hiroki Moriya in the quarter-finals – KEIO Challenger 2012
Seeded third in the draw, Yuichi Sugita of Japan, did not show any respite to his fifth seeded compatriot, Hiroki Moriya, beating him in a one sided match in the quarter-finals of the KEIO Challenger in Yokohama, Japan.
The higher ranked Japanese player dropped just five games in the entire contest, downing Moriya in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 in to book his place at the last-four stage of his home event.
There was no drama at the start of the contest, as Sugita and Moriya held their serve in the first five games to take the score to 3-2 in the former’s favour. Sugita stung a break in the sixth and won his subsequent serve to attain
a 5-2 lead. The Japanese contender maintained his advantage till the end and sealed it 6-3.
Sugita served consistently good throughout the first set, banging in two aces and 72 percent of the first deliveries. The Japanese player had a pretty decent conversion rate as well, as he grabbed 16 of the 23 first and seven of
the nine second serve points. The 24-year-old also did a good job on the second replies to Moriya’s deliveries, claiming 11 of the 17. Sugita put away the only break threat he came across and availed one of the seven he created for himself in the opener.
First four games of the second set went with serve, levelling the proceedings at 2-2. It was all Sugita slow later on, as he captured four games in a row to close it 6-2.
The right-hander neither hit any ace nor committed any double fault in the second set. Sugita further improved his conversion rate, winning nine of the 10 first and seven of the 10 second serve points. The Japanese player did not
face any break point this time and converted two of the eight he received.
It took Sugita just one hour and 15 minutes to record this easy win over his countryman.
The Japanese contender had a 2-3 tour level match win/loss record in the 2012 season. He gave his best performance at the Aircel Chennai Open, where he succeeded for the main draw and then went on to reach the quarter-finals, losing
a hard fought match to the then world number 10, Nicolas Almagro.
Sugita will take on the world number 336, Mirza Basic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the second round. Basic upset the second seed, Rajeev Ram, in the quarter-finals.
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