Soeda stuns defending champion Wawrinka, Almagro through
CHENNAI, Jan. 6, 2012 - Japanese qualifier Go Soeda pulled off a sensational 6-4, 6-4 victory over Swiss third seed and defending champion Stanislas Wawrinka to advance to the semifinals of the Aircel Chennai Open on Friday.
World No. 17 Wawrinka struggled to find his rhythm as 120th ranked Soeda broke him in the third game to win the first set.
Soeda traded breaks with the Swiss Beijing Olympic doubles gold medalist twice in the second set before breaking him in the ninth game, and served out for victory to advance to his first Tour semifinal.
"He deserved to win, he was playing better and was putting a lot of pressure and was a player with rhythm after coming through the qualifiers," Wawrinka said.
The Swiss blamed himself for the defeat.
"I made a lot of mistakes. I didn't serve well, was not finding my rhythm. When you are not playing really good, the guy on the other side is playing better, that's what happens," he said.
"This is just the beginning of the year, you are looking for matches, looking for rhythm, looking to play a good game. It happens," Wawrinka added.
Soeda was visibly excited about the victory.
"I am really happy - my first Tour semifinal and beating the world No. 17," the Japanese said.
Another Japanese qualifier Yuichi Sugita almost pulled off an upset against World No. 10 Nicolas Almagro, but squandered three match points in the second set tie-break.
This allowed the Spaniard to recover and win the match on his fifth match point in the 10th game of the third set after five deuces. Almagro won 4-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4.
In the semifinals, Almagro will play Raonic and Soeda will take on the winner of the quarterfinal between Serbian top seed Janko Tipsarevic and Belgian wild card David Goffin.
