Asian Games bronze medalist Tatsuma Ito may not be as well known as his good friend and fellow Japanese Kei Nishikori in the tennis circle but he is certainly one to let his performance on court do the talking.
The 23-year-old Inabe native showed that he can be just as good as Nishikori when he played some brilliant tennis to dispatch off Monaco journeyman Jean-Rene Lisnard 7-6, 6-2 in the second qualifying round of the Malaysian Open ATP 250 championship at Putra Stadium, Bukit Jalil yesterday.
“Me and Kei, we’re good friends and we have a lot to talk about,” said Tatsuma.
“Even though he’s younger than me, he certainly plays good tennis and I get to train and spar with him whenever he’s back in Japan and that helps me improve as well.
“I’ve certainly improved quite a bit since the Asian Games last year and I even got to compete in the main draw of the US Open last month which was quite an experience.”
Tatsuma lost in the first round to Spain’s Feliciano Lopez then.
“Although my rankings is still just at 130 in the world, I believe there’s still room for me to improve and maybe catch up with Kei,” said Tatsuma who was ranked as high as No.102 early last month.
Yesterday Tatsuma broke Lisnard’s serve early in the first set to race to a 4-1 lead before Lisnard fought back to force deuce at 5-5.
Still the young Japanese proved superior especially on service returns and eventually took the first set after a closely fought tiebreaker and it was one-way traffic in the second set.
Tatsuma will next take on Russia’s Mikhail Ledovskikh in the qualifying final today for a place in the main draw.
Meanwhile, in yesterday’s other matches, top qualifying seed Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia made light work of Bulgarian Alexander Lazov – winning 6-1, 6-1 and will take on China’s Zhang Ze next.
The young Chinese had earlier defeated the higher ranked Yuichi Sugita of Japan 6-3, 6-4.
Two Americans – Michael Yani and Rajeev Ram also made it through with hard-fought victories and will take on South Africa’s Rik De Voest and Aussie Marinko Matosevic respectively. - Kng Zheng Guan
