Wishya, Pol Still Remain Strong in Hua Hin
Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul and Pol Wattanakul kept the Thai spirits arising high at the True Arena Hua Hin as they booked rare two spots in the quarter-finals of the US$10,000 Cal-Comp & XYZ Printing ITF Thailand Men’s Futures 4 at the True Arena Hua Hin on Wednesday.
The country’s No 1 Wishaya reached his fourth final appearance in an ITF this year following a 6-3 6-2 win over his doubles partner and mentor Kittipong Wachiramanowong in 64 minutes while Pol upset Denis Yevseyev of Kazakhstan 3-6 6-1 6-3 for his first final eight spot in 13 months.
For the first time this year Thailand has two men in a quarter-final singles of an ITF. The inform Wishaya who just won his first title in 2016 on Friday in Bangkok had no problem taking out his mentor Kittipong. The latter also gave him a brief right after their match on court.
“It’s a bit difficult to play my own mentor as he knows me very well. But as a professional, I have to put our relationship behind and stayed highly competitive as usual,” said Wishaya. “As he is a good returner, I had to keep my first serve percentage high. I took the initiative and a god control most of the time. I was able to achieve what I planned to do.”
The big-hitting Wishaya today lines up a tough showdown with third seed and Asian Games doubles gold medalist Lim Yong-kyu of South Korea who beat Japanese Ryota Tanuma 6-2 6-3.
“He is a solid player. I expect a tough match. I have to sick to my game plan, and be aggressive,” said Wishaya.
Pol who had lost 11 straight ITF opening matches before this week started to get into the grove as he managed to win back-to-back matches for the first time since November 2015.
“I’m so happy as I lost 11 matches coming here. The quarter-final is beyond imagination,” said Pol who admitted he was unfit because of health problem.
“I have to take a good care of myself, with my diet and routine. I try to enjoy tennis out there as I cannot control the result. I have a tough opponent waiting for me tomorrow as he won a Challenger in India in October,” Pol said.
The former Thai No 1 meets top seed Sadio Doumbia of France who escaped from a scary defeat, fighting back from 3-5 down to beat the inspired Lee Jea Moon of South Korean 7-6 (8-6) 1-6 7-5.
Elsewhere, sixth seed Cho Min Hyeok moved on as his countryman Seol Jae-Min retired at two all with injury. Seventh seed Chung Hong of South Korea beat countryman Nam Hyun Won 6-4 7-5. Another South Korea Kim Jae Hwan, a qualifier, upset seed Temur Ismailov of Uzbekistan 7-5 7-6 (7-2). Fourth seed Fabien Reboul of France used his super solid baseline game to wear down national Davis Cup player Isarow 6-3 6-4.
