CHRISTIE has made it to the semis!

Rising star Kodai NARAOKA will try to do at least as good as he did last year in the Yonex French Open, losing in the semis against Viktor AXELSEN. Still, Jonatan CHRISTIE represents a great challenge as he has been performing well recently. The Indonesian starts strong taking advantage of NARAOKA’s difficulties to get into his matches in this French Open. 11/3 at the break, nothing to be afraid of for the Japanese but he will have to wake up. “Jojo” is not ready to give him this opportunity and continues to punish his opponents’ imprecisions to take the lead up to 17/4. Without breaking a sweat, he takes the first set (21/8).  

Second set is more even now that the world number 3 is at full capacity. Despite that, he is still trailing against a CHRISTIE showing that he is the best player on court tonight. NARAOKA seems way behind physically, he might be paying all the disputed matches he did to get to the quarterfinals. Against all odds, he manages to come back giving everything he has, battling and diving for every single point (11/9). He might not be dead but he’s suffering for sure, Jonatan CHRISTIE making sure the Japanese has to visit the whole court before winning one point. The 22 years old answers bravely and doesn’t give up, leading the whole set from that point. Playing fantastically, he totally overturns the story of the game but it’s the Indonesian’s turn to come back and the game is tied at 19/19. He saves two match points and ends up winning one of the best set French Open has seen during the whole week (25/23).