ATP Kaohsiung Challenger: Yuki Bhambri upsets 7th seed Yuchi Sugita to reach quarterfinals

FILE PHOTO: Yuki Bhambri

India’s Yuki Bhambri continued his resurgence in the ATP Kaohsiung Challenger tennis tournament, surprising seventh seed Yuichi Sugita of Japan in straight sets 7-6(5), 7-5 to sneak into the singles quarter finals in Taiwan.

Yuki, who was the country’s second highest ranked singles player behind Somdev Devvarman at the start of the year hovering in the 200-300 ranking bracket, before suffering a significant slump, looked in control of the proceedings against the 146th ranked Japanese opponent.

The 477th ranked Indian fought hard against Yuichi who was considered the favourite going into the match. Both players held serve to be at 2-2.

Yuki appeared to be pushed on the backfoot when he lost his serve in the fifth game, but he exuded plenty of pluck to breach the Japanese’s serve to bring things to an even kneel.

From being down 2-4, Yuki went on to lead 5-4 before the contest slipped into tie-break. The Indian held the early advantage in the tie-break before Yuichi clawed his way back to make it 5-5.

The Indian stayed cool and finished off the tie-break to gain the upper hand and raised visions of a surprise over a much-fancied opponent.

The Japansese refused to throw in the sponge and kept running the Indian close in the second set. The decisive break of serve eluded both players until the latter stages of the second set.

Yuki held his serve in the eleventh game to go up 6-5 before he breached Yuchi’s serve to close the set and the match at 7-5 for a berth in the last eight stage.

It is significant to mention that this was Yuki’s first win over the Japanese.

He had lost to him twice earlier in the 2012 Honolulu Challenger and the 2013 Toyota Challenger – on both occasions in straight sets.

Earlier, Yuki launched his campaign with a win over another higher ranked player in Israel’s Amir Weintraub. The Indian accounted for the 190th ranked Israeli in straight sets 7-6(8), 6-1.

The win was his third straight win over the Israeli in head-to-head meetings.