And that’s when Watanuki’s Cinderella story came to a screeching halt. At 4-3, he had a look at a hanging forehand. For a week, he had taken this shot at the top of the bounce and pulverized it; this time, he hesitated, swung late, and sent it wide. At 4-4, he put a forehand into the net. At 4-5, he drilled a backhand into the net. And at 4-6, double set point for Griekspoor, Watanuki flipped a forehand wide for his fifth straight unforced error. He would win just one more game.
This doesn’t mean Watanuki showed us why he’s ranked 349th. He’s only that low because of the knee tendinitis that kept him out for much of 2024. What he did show, perhaps, is why his career high so far is No. 72. He plays a proactive game that requires exquisite timing and always borders on the low percentage. If his match against Griekspoor is any indication, it doesn’t take much for his timing to become something less than exquisite.
Judging from his other four matches at Indian Wells, though, Watanuki has a lot more upside that he has shown, even at his fairly advanced age. We’ve seen flashes of brilliance from him over the years. As a junior, he was ranked as high as No. 2 in the world. He has won eight lower-level titles in Japan, a round at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and has made the quarters in Lyon. Maybe most significantly, he took a set from Tiafoe in Miami in 2023. During that loss, he watched Wayne Ferreira coach Tiafoe, and liked what he saw.
