Ratiwatana twins sizzle in the rain
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Twins Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana brushed off a rain delay to sweep past Japan's Shuichi Sekiguchi and Yuichi Sugita 6-1 6-1 in the first round of the men's doubles at the US$50,000 Chang-SAT Bangkok Open at Rama Garden Hotel yesterday.
The top pairing, boasting a French and an English title so far this season, were leading 6-1 2-0 before a downpour suspended play for more than an hour.
In second-round singles action, No 2 seed Matthew Ebden of Australia bounced back from a break down to beat Japanese Hiroki Kondo 6-3 6-0 and advance to his fifth Challenger quarter-final this year.
The 127th ranked Ebden quickly fell behind the Japanese serve-and-volleyer 0-2 but then won 12 of the next 13 games with powerful groundstrokes to close out the match in just 67 minutes. The 25-year-old Perth resident is in his first quarter-finals since winning a Challenger event on grass in Nottingham in June.
Waiting for the Aussie in the final eight is Japan’s world No 181 Hiroki Moriya. The 22-year-old right-hander took one hour and 27 minutes to beat Taiwan’s Ti Chen 6-3 6-3.
A day after trouncing Thai teenager Wishaya Trongcharoen-chaikul, Taiwanese third-seed Jimmy Wang (previously known as Wang Yeu-tzuoo) stopped the inspired American qualifier Tyler Hochwalt 6-2 5-7 6-2. He next plays Australia’s Matt Reid, who was briefly tested by Jose Statham of New Zealand before prevailing 7-6 (8-6) 6-2.
