Taro Daniel Overcomes Racket Theft, Rodionov to Reach Seoul Final

Taro Daniel is through to the final of the Sisley Seoul Open Challenger, but it was anything but a straightforward semi-final Saturday for the number-one seed as he had to contend with first the loss of 50% of his equipment, and then Jurij Rodionov, who posed a much sterner challenge than the 6-3 6-2 scoreline suggests.

"I strung a few rackets last night, but those got stolen!" Daniel explained after the match. "So I had six rackets and now I only have three. Three is enough so I can still play but it's a bizarre situation. Even my coach (Sven Groeneveld), who has been on Tour for 33 years, it's never happened, so it's yeah, it's super unlucky."

Daniel was broken by Rodionov in the very first game of the match, but didn't want to lay too much of the blame on the earlier incident. "It's kind of like getting into a small car accident, with no injuries but you're just kind of shocked and like you don't know what just happened. I'm a little bit fatigued from all the matches that I played so I had to switch my mindset a little,"

"I knew I wasn't going to feel super great in the beginning and then he came out playing very well."

Daniel broke straight back but would be broken again before taking the first set 6-3 and going on to win the second 6-2, with the Austrian Rodionov, who had beaten the number 3 seed Nicolas Moreno De Alboran in three tight sets on Friday, forcing eleven break points across the match but only managing to convert the two in the first set.

"The score doesn't represent how tough the match was." Daniel admitted. "He put me under a lot of pressure and I had to play well all the time. If I let down a little bit, he would start dominating the points very quickly. "

The win means a second final in as many weeks for Daniel, who is back up to 78 in the world rankings following his win in Taipei last week, a victory he says has taken the pressure off somewhat in terms of being in the top 100 in the year end rankings.

"Last week especially in the last few rounds there was a lot at stake especially in the final because since the points system changed with the Challengers and the ATP, there were so many points (to play for) in the final. So winning last week definitely helped me play a little bit calmer this week, so I am not like Oh, I have to win this match to make (the Australian Open) main draw...it would have been a lot tougher today if those things were in play...because if the racket thing happened and I had to then worry about the top 100...!"

In Seoul, Daniel defeated Benoit Paire in an eventful, to say the least, three-setter in the first round on Tuesday before overcoming Dalibor Svrcina in the round of sixteen and then Thai qualifier Kasidt Samrej in the Quarter-Finals, both in straight sets.

Victory over Rodionov sends Daniel through to Sunday's final where he will face the former World number 16, Nikoloz Basilashvili. The Georgian had an altogether more relaxing day as his scheduled semi-final opponent Antoine Escoffier withdrew prior to the start of their match. Basilashvili previously came through two tough opening matches with three-set wins over Terence Atmane and Wu Tung-lin, before a more straightforward victory over Hiroki Moriya in the Quarter Finals.

Taro Daniel (with just three rackets) vs Nikoloz Basilashvili for the Sisley Seoul Open Challenger title will be on centre court at 2pm on Sunday afternoon, following the doubles final which pits Vasil Kirkov and Bart Stevens against Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni, which starts at 12pm.

The full Taro Daniel post semi-final press conference (with Tennis Asia asking the questions) can be watched here: https://youtu.be/iFYsu8Nh1XI?si=97a3r5K57y57hLw1