Yuichi Sugita has caused a sensation at the 26th GERRY WEBER OPEN. He won against the No. 3 seeded Dominic Thiem 6:2, 7:5.
It reminds somehow of the Football World Cup match when Germany played Brazil four years ago. 6:2 it was at the end of the first set and not 7:1, but just like back then the spectators hardly believed their eyes. Yuichi Sugita led the way the match was going on the Centre Court at the GERRY WEBER STADIONS. The highly favoured Dominic Thiem produced lots of errors because he was put under pressure by the strong Japanese time after time. The Austrian's service wasn't like we are used to, either. Yuichi Sugita got eight break points, two he was able to use. After 34 minutes the first round was through.
Those who thought the French-Open-Finalist whould get to grips now, were dissapointed. Even though Yuichi Sugita wasn't so dominant any more, Dominc Thiem was not able to come up with the performance shown in Paris and in the first round in Halle. His rate in the first service was too low and the Japanese just knew how to hit the shots so that the Austrian wasn't able to handle them in the way needed to put pressure on his opponent.
At a time when everyone saw a tie break coming in the second set, Yuichi Sugita hit. He had the only break of the round to bring it to 6:5. At 40:0 the Japanese had three match points, which Dominic Thiem fended off wonderfully. The forth, though, did it.
"That was one of the best matches of my life. Here on the Centre Court it's so unbelievable, I can't really believe that I've succeeded", Yuichi Sugita said smiling broadly. After this coup the Japanese meets Qualifier Denis Kudla in the Quarter-Finals.
