Two things that stood out in Yoshihito Nishioka's 1R win over Terence Atmane at Zhuhai Championships

Eighth seed Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan beat Terence Atmane of France 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of the Zhuhai Championships in China on Wednesday, September 20.

The 27-year-old Japanese bounced back well after surrendering quite tamely in the first set. Nishioka will face Lloyd Harris of South Africa in the second round on Friday, which promises to be an absorbing encounter.

On that note, here are two things that stood out in the one hour 55 minute contest between Nishioka and Atmane:

#1. Atmane ruled with his power game in the first set:

Atmane put his powerful first serve and blistering forehand to good use in the first set and offered Nishioka no respite. He broke the Japanese thrice and never lost his serve to serve the latter a bagel. Atmane hit a few wonderful winners off his forehand in the first set to stun his opponent.

On the other hands, Nishioka's misfiring forehand made the Frenchman’s job easier. There were a lot of crosscourt forehand exchanges between the two southpaws, but Atmane came out on top in most of them.

#2. Atmane struggled off his second serve against a disciplined Nishioka in the last two sets:

Atmane’s first serve ratio dropped as the match progressed and Nishioka took full advantage of it. He also became more disciplined in his shotmaking in the last two sets, cutting down the number of unforced errors.

Nishioka broke Atmane in the first game of the second set and held serve for the remainder of the set to level the scoreline. His dominance continued in the third set as he converted both of the break points on offer and cruised to a comfortable victory.

The Frenchman’s return game faltered in the last two sets as he struggled to put pressure on Nishioka’s second serve.

Atmane performed better than his opponent off his first serve in the match, winning 66% of the points on it against Nishioka’s 60%. However, he was able to win only 67% of the points on his second serve against Nishioka’s 90%, which proved to be the difference between the two. The Frenchman thus failed to capitalize on a fantastic start to finish on the losing side.