Yuki now India’s best

Though he says the draw opened up after his potential second round opponent,third seed Izak Van der Merwe lost to a wild card entrant,Yuki had two tough matches in the quarters and semis,and was stretched to three-setters each time. “In the semi-final I came back from a set down to win and that really pepped me up,gave me great motivation before the final and was a good preparation.”

Though he had never played his opponent in the final,Israeli Amir Weintraub before,Yuki admired his game and style. “He is one of those rare players on the tour with a single-hand backhand and his style is a delight to watch,” he adds. One of the main reasons why Yuki could overcome Weintraub’s style was his coach Aditya Sachdeva’s court-side analysis. “Even though I hadn’t played any of my opponents before,he would watch their matches, break down their game,make a game plan each time and then it was just about executing it on the court. For example,against Weintraub we decided since his backhand is really strong,I will not feed him on that flank and keep him on the move so he can’t use it at will.”

Another positive out of the week is,he says,that his service is more consistent than before. “I have added pace to it while maintaining the accuracy and this week it got me out of quite a few tough points and gave me some free points as well. I had got out of Busan (singles) early and the daily practice for doubles helped me with my net game,which I plan to implement in singles as well.”

Having always fought the increasing murmurs of his performance not matching his potential,several injury-induced breaks and the criticism of a long overdue breakthrough season,Yuki feels he has always shown improvement. “To me it doesn’t feel like a whole while … it’s all about the transition … I haven’t done enough yet but game wise every time I was on the courts,I was performing. As long as I keep playing,and stay injury free it makes life a lot easier,that’s 50% work done.”