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Asian Games: Indonesia’s Rifqi beats Nepal’s Bajracharya in tennis
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Indonesian tennis player Muhammad Rifqi Fitriadi serves during an Asian Games men’s singles preliminary round match against Samrakshyak Bhusan Bajracharya of Nepal in Palembang, South Sumatra on Sunday. Rifqi won 6-2, 6-2. (JP/Apriadi Gunawan)
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ndonesian tennis player Muhammad Rifqi Fitriadi crushed Nepal’s Samrakshyak Bhusan Bajracharya in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 at the Jakabaring tennis court in Palembang on Sunday.
The 19-year-old, currently ranked 1,458th in the world, passed the first qualifiers in style and only took one hour and 10 minutes to defeat Bajracharya, world number 1,245. The first set was definitely Rifqi’s as he dominated over his Nepalese opponent throughout the first four games, which ended 45-15, 45-15, 45-0 and 45-40. Then Rifqi lost the fifth and seventh games to his opponent with 15-45 and 40-45. Rifqi quickly bounced back in the eighth game to close the first set with a 45-40 victory.
Rifqi got off to a bad start in the second set as a result of what seemed to be a lack of alertness. Unforced errors and faults contributed most to him losing the first game to Bajracharya with a score of 40-45. But then Rifqi managed to redeem himself, winning the second to sixth games with 45-30, 45-30, 45-30 and 45-0. He closed the last game with a tight score of 45-40 after losing the seventh 15-45.
Rifqi advances to the second round and appeared to be very happy about tackling his more experienced Nepalese counterpart.
“This is very meaningful for me and helps my self-confidence a lot to face the next round,” he told The Jakarta Post after the match.
Rifqi will be meeting world number 161 Prajnesh Gunneswaran of India in the second round of men's singles.
