'DAVID vs GOLIATH'

Here's another one of those David vs Goliath stories for you, a story that does not make a whole lot of sense due to current rankings etc, however it happened all the same. It proves that owning a heart in a sport as tough as tennis can in fact get you over the line.....
Ben Mclachlan is a 25 year old Tennis Professional who was born in New Zealand however as of this year he has become a Japanese citizen. Ben plays on the Challenger Circuit and has amassed a grand total of $15,000 this year. No I have not forgot any zeros from that amount, Ben has won what Roger Federer would keep as loose change in his ashtray of his Ferrari.
Currently Ben sits at World number 131 in Mens Doubles. In singles he does not own a ranking and has only ever once been ranked which was number 729 in 2015.
Yasutaka Uchiyama is also 25 years of age, a Japanese citizen, a Challenger Circuit player, has won just $1,600 in Mens Doubles in 2017 and is currently ranked World number 494. In singles Uchiyama has faired a little better with a current ranking of 214 and has won $66,000. 
Ben Mclachlan and Yasutaka Uchiyama decided to team up together to play the Japan Open this week in Tokyo however one thing was missing, obviously, a ranking high enough to gain them automatic entry.
The Wild Card system of World Tennis lays solely in the arms of the tournament committee who must spend sleepless nights pondering over who should be granted direct entry and who must enter the ruthless qualifying rounds. They must also make the decision on who misses out altogether due to a ranking that looks more like a cricket score.
Tournament Committees don't have an easy job but can look like geniuses at times when their decision making pays off and a player or team makes a mark on World Tennis. In Tokyo that's exactly what happened.
In the Round of 16 Mclachlan and Uchiyama had a tough third set Super Tiebreaker win over Huey and Shamasdin, a tough, seasoned pair who even though own rankings inside the top 70 in Mens Doubles still had to qualify for the Tokyo event.
Quarter Finals.
Rojer/ Tecau are in a different league than most in Mens Doubles and this was the next assignment for the duo who are simply just trying to win enough to stay afloat on the tour if you take into account their recent earnings.
Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau are the reigning US Open Champions, the 2015 Wimbledon Mens Doubles Champion team and the 2015 end of year World Tour Finals Doubles Champions. This is a duo who have amassed a career total of 58 World Tour titles combined and around 4 Million dollars each. It's safe to say that these two have forged a fairly handy career in the art of Mens Doubles.
So on paper this was a mismatch, something that should be looked at as a learning curve for a team as lowly ranked as the Japanese currently are, a match that some teams would simply be looking at winning a few games for some respect.
Tennis  however doesn't work that way if you have a team that believes in their own ability to not only strike a tennis ball but to actually play the game because as you know in tennis, there is a difference.
The ratio of players who can hit a ball well as opposed to the ones who actually know HOW TO PLAY TENNIS would be a discrepancy too hard to crunch in numbers.
In Monte Carlo this year there was the remarkable story of Arneodo and Nys who owned a combined ranking of over 1000 yet managed to make it all the way to the semi finals with a win over Murray and Soares, the 2016 Australian Open Mens Doubles Champions. 
What made that win even more remarkable was that Romain Arneodo had won just $54 for the year. Not sure where he won it but that was the official amount on the ATP website that has almost run out of room for the Big 4 and the amount of zeros at the end of their earnings column.
Back to Tokyo. 
Personally I believe that the 7-6, 7-6 win by Mclachlan and Uchiyama over Rojer and Tecau two days ago will go down in history as one of the all time great Mens Doubles wins when you take into account where all four players currently sit in World tennis.
Whilst prize money can give a certain indication as to how good a team is I think the amount of wins at a high level has more to do with just how remarkable this upset was.
Now here's the eerie similarities between this match and what transpired in Monte Carlo earlier this year.
In round two on the French Riviera Arneodo and Nys took out Rojer and Tecau by almost the same score as the match in Tokyo, 7-5, 7-6 and asks the obvious question;
Does a seasoned team struggle against an unknown quantity ? Proof in the pudding perhaps ??
It's one thing playing a Challenger Circuit, it's another to play the big boys, week in, week out as shot making prowess and split decision thinking rises to a ridiculous level of intensity. Yet in this instance David managed a win over Goliath, a win for the ages, proof it can happen.
No matter what happens next match, Ben Mclachlan and Yasutaka Uchiyama will have enough money to fund their chosen lifestyle for a little longer with a guaranteed share of just under $25,000.
It's still 'loose change' for Roger Federer but it's a lifeline for two tennis battlers...........