The 2018 ATP World Tour season has been the best of Japanese No. 2 Taro Daniel’s career. Daniel captured his maiden tour-level crown at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open in May, and reached just his second semi-final at this level at the Winston-Salem Open in August.
The reason for his string of success is not a secret.
“I think I’ve finally started incorporating some new things that I haven’t done for 10 years,” Daniel said. “I’ve been working on the same thing for 10 years and now I’ve kind of opened my mind toward how I play, and physically, too. So that’s definitely been a positive stimulus for me and I think that’s been showing in my results.”
Daniel says he has been trying to increase his aggression on the court, hone his transition game and focus on utilising his backhand as more of a weapon in baseline rallies.
Before the season began, Daniel owned 18 tour-level match wins, and had never topped more than 10 victories in one year. But with his new approach, the New York-born player has 16 triumphs so far in 2018, which have helped him climb as high as No. 64 in the ATP Rankings.
“I’ve been able to make some quarter-finals and winning a match at an ATP [World Tour] event is not as much of a surprise anymore as it was last year, so hopefully I can solidify these kind of results, keep it coming,” Daniel said. “But goals are not a huge thing. If I keep improving, I’m sure it’ll come naturally. So I’m not too worried about it.
“I’m definitely happy with how I’m progressing. But results are not the most important things.”
Instead, Daniel is focusing on the process of improving his level. And he has a chance to continue doing just that this week at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2018, where he will play in front of his home fans at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza. In the first round, Daniel faces #NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the tournament’s fifth seed.
“It’s exciting to play a Next Gen player,” Daniel said. “I’m definitely the challenger, I’ve got nothing to lose here this week, so hopefully it’ll go well.”
He is sure to have plenty of support as he tries to win his first main draw match in Tokyo. While Daniel is 0-3 at the ATP World Tour 500-level event, he is excited to play with the support of the home crowd.
“It’s great, obviously. It’s one of the biggest tennis markets in the world. People are really into it,” Daniel said. “Many players around the world, maybe if they’re even No. 50 in the world, they might not be that recognised in their country. But I feel like I’m pretty well-recognised here, and that’s really a great thing. We’re exposed and I’m really grateful for the support I get here. I always feel it when I’m back.”
It’s been Daniel’s most successful year to date, and he has a chance to make it even better here in Tokyo. More than anything else, he’s going to do his best to continue enjoying the ride.
“It’s a long year, a long process, so it’s important to enjoy or at least be really into what you’re doing,” Daniel said. “Winning and losing is a very euphoric or very disastrous moment for a very short while, so you want to try and make the other moments, the enjoyable ones, last."
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