Marcelo Arevalo served first when he and Jean-Julien Rojer played Ben McLachlan and Yoshihito Nishioka in their doubles quarter-final in Tokyo last night, the match starting with a great 12 shot rally that McLachlan won with a beautiful backhand volley. That was the only shot that McLachlan and Nishioka, won but it was still better than their effort when McLachlan served next, because they didn’t win any points at all in that one. Rojer hit a couple of winners to start, with Nishioka and McLachlan then forced into errors on volleys, but they broke straight back in what was by far the best game in the early stages.
It started with another great rally which was lost by Arevalo when he was forced to hit a backhand wide, but he made up for that with a beautiful forehand stop volley on the next point. The left-handed Nishioka’s beautiful overhead volley was followed by a double fault from Rojer to drop them back to deuce, and Nishioka hit a beautiful backhand return down the tramlines to get his team back on track. There wasn’t too much in the way of highlights through the next rotation of serve, with the best shot being a fabulous cross-court forehand winner from Rojer in McLachlan’s next game.
Arevalo followed a fabulous cross-court backhand return off Nishioka with a beautiful backhand volley, and Rojer completed another break of serve with a fabulous forehand return down the tramlines. Another great rally in the next game ended with a fabulous forehand volley from Rojer, and Arevalo brought up four set points when he aced McLachlan out wide. One was enough, as Nishioka was forced to hit a forehand wide to end the set after 29 minutes.
McLachlan aced Rojer twice in the opening game of the second set, but he got aced by Arevalo in the next game after taking the first point in spectacular fashion with a fabulous inside-out backhand return into the tramlines. It was Arevalo’s turn for a stunning return in the next game, this time an inside-out forehand off Nishioka, but his later forehand return into the net allowed Nishioka to get back to deuce, and a nice forehand volley from McLachlan won the deciding point. McLachlan then hit a fabulous backhand winner onto the baseline to win a good short rally on Rojer’s first point, with the FoxTenn challenge replay showing that a whole 2 mm of the ball had made contact with the line. Nishioka hit a fabulous forehand return down the tramlines later in the game, but Rojer still went on to hold serve.
McLachlan and Arevalo had comfortable holds, the latter hitting a beautiful cross-court forehand winner during the latter game, and McLachlan hit a fabulous inside-out forehand volley to help his partner hold to love. Nishioka added another shot to the highlights reel when he started Rojer’s next game with a beautiful cross-court forehand winner, but a forced error from the Dutchman dropped him back to deuce. He held safely when Nishioka’s return of the deciding point went long.
The last four games all went with serve as well, Rojer acing McLachlan out wide to take them to the tie-break. McLachlan started with an ace, and his team got the first mini-break when they successfully challenged Arevalo’s first serve on his second point after McLachlan’s forehand return had gone wide. Not only did that serve become a fault, but Arevalo hit the next one into the net to lose the point. Arevalo got the mini-break straight back when his inside-out forehand return off Nishioka touched McLachlan’s racquet on the way through, and a beautiful cross-court forehand return from Rojer gave his team the lead. Rojer won his first point to retain the advantage as they changed ends, but he double faulted on the second to give back the mini-break.
A few strokes later he was back in front, his easy forehand winner down the tramlines taking McLachlan’s first point, and he followed that with a beautiful forehand return down the singles sideline to give his team three match points. Rojer completed a hat-trick of winning points with an inside-out backhand volley to end the match after an hour and 23 minutes. The final score was 6-3, 7-6 (3).