Phassawit sweats his way to fine victory
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Thailand's most updated English news website, newspaper english, breaking news : The Nation
THE GUTSY Phassawit Burapharita staged a late comeback to upset fifth seed Arata Onozawa of Japan 2-6 6-0 7-5 in the second-round match of the US$10,000 Chang ITF Pro Circuit 3 at Rama Garden Sport Complex yesterday.
The Thai No 3 fought back from a break down at 3-5 in the final set, gritting his teeth to hang in there at five-all when he suffered cramp in his hand that then spread to other muscles.
“I felt it while serving at 15-40 and 5-5 in the final set. But I really pushed myself to keep playing as I was close to finishing off the match and I knew opportunities like these don’t come very often. So I tried to hit the ball back while he rushed and made errors,” said Phassawit, ranked a lowly 857th in the world.
After the match, the Chulalongkorn University senior couldn’t move and officials had to carry him away for treatment. To the relief of everyone, he recovered after three hours.
“As I was trying to cool down, 10 minutes after the match, I got cramp all over my body. But I wasn’t worried because it happened to me before. I should be okay and ready for the next match.”
Waiting for him in today’s quarter-final is the red-hot Akira Satillan, the winner of first Circuit event, who toppled Australia’s Blake Mott 7-5 6-3.
“Akira has everything going for him in his game. He is No 8 in the junior world ranking and has done pretty well as he turns to play in the Futures. But I’m in the quarter-final now and I will fight hard to seize the chance,” Phassawit said.
Thai No 2 Pruchya Isarow was stopped in the second round yesterday as he lost to top seed Kento Takeuchi 6-2 6-3. Singekrawee Wattanakul won the rain-interrupted match over countryman Nawakarn Khunjan 6-3 6-3.
In other matches, Australia’s Jacob Grills reached the quarter-finals for the first time in three weeks after he ousted India’s Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash 6-3 4-6 6-0. Finn Tearney of New Zealand beat Shiga Masato of Japan 6-2 6-3.
