In the 1/8 finals of the challenger in Columbus, American Jack Sok will play against Go Soeda from Japan.
Go Soeda
37-year-old Soeda fully met our expectations in the 1/16 finals last night and beat Wu Tong-lin from Taiwan. At the same time, the match did not start easily for Soeda, the Japanese immediately lost the game on his serve. As a result, it came to the point that Wu was already serving for a set, but then Soeda was able to get together and save the game. As a result, everything was decided on a tie-break, where the Japanese turned out to be a little more stable – 7:6 (7:5). After that, Tung-Lin could not tune in for the second set. Wu quickly lost two games on his serve, allowed Soeda to reach the score 4:0, and the Japanese could not give such a big advantage, as a result, the game ended with a score of 6:2.
Jack Juice
The 29-year-old Juice, in turn, played a very difficult match of the 1/16 finals against his compatriot Christopher Eubanks last night. Eubanks was considered a small favorite in this meeting, which was quite justified, yet Juice had not played up to this point this season. But Jack held his serve very well, in the end he won the first set on a tie-break – 7:6 (9:7). In the second set, it came to a tie-break again, but Eubanks played better here – 6:7 (4:7). In the decisive game, Juice could break twice, but at first Eubanks saved his serve, but closer to the end of the main game, Jack still squeezed Christopher and made a break. After that, Juice calmly held his serve and eventually finished the meeting with a score of 6:4.
Jack Sok and Go Soeda played together twice. The first match, which was ten years ago, ended with a score of 2:1 in sets in favor of the Japanese. And already in 2015, the Juice was able to take revenge and win the match with a score of 2:0 in sets. In any case, both of these matches have been held for a long time, and therefore there is no point in putting serious emphasis on them now.
Forecast
Considering that Jack Juice has already shown that he is quite serious about the home challenger, he should outplay the aged Japanese and calmly advance to the quarterfinals.