$2.6 Million Dubai Duty Free Championships 2018

[Tolamu]

One LL spot. And Blaz Kavcic got it.

[PKBasu]

Shockingly bad loss. This was really horrible against a much lower-ranked player. And quite shocking after his consummate win in Q1.

[sameerph]

If it is not because of an injury, it may be as simple as that he ran into someone with a strong serve and a tremendous return of serve.

When one is not able to win any points on one's own serve, its natural for other parts of the game to come apart. With Yuki's currrent serve, it is always going to be difficult at ATP level.

Hoping for the later as this guy needs a break from injuries so that he can do best he can in the years to come.

I also hope so but difficult to fathom 16 16 thrashing. Yuki did not have this kind of loss in years. Not sure what happened there.

[Omkara]

Not even against Andy Murray

[prasen9]

Hey every dog (even) has its (bad) day.

[Varma]

Hey every dog (even) has its (bad) day.

I too hope that it is the case. Even with his not-so-decent serve at ATP level, Yuki is almost always good at creating chances on his opponent's serve. He has pretty good return game. He probably has an off-day today where he could get nothing to work. Too bad that he missed out on the lone LL spot. There may still be a narrow chance of someone else withdrawing in the last minute. Let's wait and watch.

- Varma

[arjun2761]

Yuki's struggle continues as he lost first set 1-6 and then got broken in very first game of 2nd set
Horrendous performance, gave some fight on Yannick serve with 2 BP's But could not convert and then got broken on love..

While it does not fully explain the horrible performance, windy conditions would hamper Yuki considerably more than most players. Conversely, indoor conditions would favor someone like Yuki more than most players.

Yuki has one of the slowest serves in the ATP top 150 that relies on guile and placement for any minimal advantage he could gain on his serves especially his second serves. If he had to serve more near the center of service box, his serves would be killed by most top 150 opponents.

While he has more pace on his ground strokes, he hits a relatively flat ball (with an upright stance) and wins by dictating rallies based on placement achieved by varying the angles and depth of his shots (and he is top 40 in this aspect of his game). If he has to hit more than 3-4 shots, he typically goes for the lines and either wins or misses and typically ends up losing the longer rallies as his margin for error is less than many of today's typical baseline grinders. In windy conditions, he would both end up hitting into the net and missing the lines far more often than in ideal conditions, so this would explain why he would play worse in windy conditions.

Of course, this does not explain the shellacking from someone who is barely in the top 150, but I'm speculating that Yuki didn't fight as hard as he could have once he realized that it was going to be a really uphill battle for him in the windy conditions.

[nitin28]

I feel yuki should skip Miami and play some challenger to win back 100 points that he would loose in march to remain in top-100.

[sameerph]

There are only 2 challengers in the week of Miami and they are in France and China. So, Yuki will need to travel back all the way if he wants to play that. I think he should stay with his plan. He is at a stage where he finally needs to succeed on ATP tour. He has done well ( qualified and won a round) whenever he has played ATP tournaments since last year. This week at Dubai was an aberration.

You never know when a good week will come along as it did at Washington ATP for him last year. If that happens in 1 of the next 3 weeks it will take him to top 100. Bad luck if he does not do that. He can always climb back up the rankings playing challengers in April ( lots of them in Asia at that time).

[nitin28]

I just hope he can play rest of GS's without any need to qualify and earn more perks.

[sameerph]

True, that would be the best scenario. He need to balance between ATP tournaments and challengers. In recent times we have found that Yuki is more motivated in ATP tour events as compared to challengers. I think he has never played at IW/Miami tournaments. So, it is a good opportunity for him to make a mark.

[S_K_S]

3 matches today on court 3:

R1 - Raven Klaasen (RSA)/Michael Venus (NZL) VS Rohan Bopanna (IND)/Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) ATP
R1 - Karen Khachanov (RUS)/Benoit Paire (FRA) VS Jamie Cerretani (USA)/Leander Paes (IND) ATP
R1 - Divij Sharan (IND)/Yuichi Sugita (JPN) VS Marcin Matkowski (POL)/Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) ATP

[S_K_S]

R1 - Raven Klaasen (RSA)/Michael Venus (NZL) def Rohan Bopanna (IND)/Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) 6-4, 3-6, 10-6

Leander has now been moved to play after Divij with the latter not starting till 6.45pm local time (50 mins from now).

[S_K_S]

R1 - Divij Sharan (IND)/Yuichi Sugita (JPN) lost to Marcin Matkowski (POL)/Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) 5-7, 1-6

[PKBasu]

Paes/Cerretani up 63 21 and serving.