Wondertoy
Professional
"the day's biggest upset in the 16s was another marathon match--Isamu Tachibana's 6-3, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4) nail-biter over seventh seed Austin Krajicek.
In the second set tiebreak, Krajicek fell behind 3-0 but reeled off seven straight points to even the match, momentum that did not spill over into the third set. After more than two hours of play, the outcome was still very much in doubt, but when Krajicek saved four match points serving at 5-6 nearly an hour later, destiny appeared to be on his side.
"He came up with some big serves," said Tachibana, the 26th seed. "There was nothing I could do about it."
Showing no sign of disappointment at failing to convert those chances, Tachibana instead took a commanding lead in the tiebreak. After losing both his serves at 1-4, Krajicek tossed his racquet, prompting the chair umpire to cite him for racquet abuse, a point penalty that would have given Tachibana the match.
"He threw his racquet across the court," said Tachibana, 16. "The chair umpire called point penalty racquet abuse, but the referee came out on the court and rescinded the code violation so it wasn't match."
"It definitely upset me," said the soft-spoken Texan, who is playing in his first Nationals at Kalamazoo. "I was walking up to the net to shake his hand. That's never happened to me. I talked to the chair umpire--she did the right thing; he'd been throwing his racquet and had gotten a warning before."
A shaken Tachibana proceeded to lose his next two serves and when Krajicek won the next point to bring it to 6-4, the tension mounted. But Tachibana was determined not to go meekly. "I knew to put the pressure on him, try to get to the net and put it away." He did just that to record the biggest win of his junior career."
In the second set tiebreak, Krajicek fell behind 3-0 but reeled off seven straight points to even the match, momentum that did not spill over into the third set. After more than two hours of play, the outcome was still very much in doubt, but when Krajicek saved four match points serving at 5-6 nearly an hour later, destiny appeared to be on his side.
"He came up with some big serves," said Tachibana, the 26th seed. "There was nothing I could do about it."
Showing no sign of disappointment at failing to convert those chances, Tachibana instead took a commanding lead in the tiebreak. After losing both his serves at 1-4, Krajicek tossed his racquet, prompting the chair umpire to cite him for racquet abuse, a point penalty that would have given Tachibana the match.
"He threw his racquet across the court," said Tachibana, 16. "The chair umpire called point penalty racquet abuse, but the referee came out on the court and rescinded the code violation so it wasn't match."
"It definitely upset me," said the soft-spoken Texan, who is playing in his first Nationals at Kalamazoo. "I was walking up to the net to shake his hand. That's never happened to me. I talked to the chair umpire--she did the right thing; he'd been throwing his racquet and had gotten a warning before."
A shaken Tachibana proceeded to lose his next two serves and when Krajicek won the next point to bring it to 6-4, the tension mounted. But Tachibana was determined not to go meekly. "I knew to put the pressure on him, try to get to the net and put it away." He did just that to record the biggest win of his junior career."
