Japan’s Ben Mclachlan and Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff caused a huge upset to defeat World No.1 team Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-6(5) to reach the Australian Open semi-finals on Tuesday. The team, playing together for the first time, edged the top seeds in the two-hour, 51-minute contest, hitting 41 winners to secure their place in the semi-finals. Mclachlan and Struff will meet the winners of Wednesday’s quarter-final as Marcus Daniell and Dominic Inglot face seventh seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic for a place in Saturday’s final. The Japanese-German duo got off to a flying start, breaking Kubot and Melo to love in the opening game of the match and, after trading breaks late in the set, served...
When it came to making moves in his professional career, Ben Mclachlan was ready to go the distance -- literally. Mclachlan began 2017 as a 200-ranked doubles specialist, and as a New Zealander. On Sunday, with Her Imperial Highness Princess Mako of Japan looking on, he lifted the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017 doubles crown -- as a Japanese player. So how does one go about playing for a different country almost overnight and, more importantly, why? Mclachlan grew up in New Zealand, spent summers in Japan and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in the U.S. -- all by the age of 22. The doubles specialist claims ties to Japan through his mother, and possesses a...
Ben Mclachlan and Yasutaka Uchiyama had the Ariake Colosseum rocking on Sunday afternoon at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017 when they became the first all-Japanese titlists in Tokyo for 12 years. Her Imperial Highness Princess Mako of Japan watched the historic final unfold. Mclachlan, New Zealand-born by a Japanese mother, and Uchiyama defeated second-seeded Briton Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares of Brazil 6-4, 7-6(1) in one hour and 32 minutes for their first ATP World Tour team title. "It hasn't really sunk in," said Uchiyama. "We have been the challengers all week and today as well, but I noticed that they were feeling the pressure and at that point, we were able to play well and push our...
Ben Mclachlan and Yasutaka Uchiyama became the first all-Japanese team to reach the Tokyo final in 12 years on Saturday at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017. The wild card team defeated Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Chile’s Julio Peralta 7-5, 6-4 in the semi-finals, much to the delight of hundreds of spectators watching in the Ariake Colosseum. The pair will now face second seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares on Sunday, where they hope to follow in the footsteps of Japan’s Satoshi Iwabuchi and Takao Suzuki who captured the 2005 trophy with victory over Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Australia’s Todd Perry. Meanwhile, at the China Open in Beijing, top seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers set a...
