Strong claycourt leadin for McLachlan
BEN McLachlan is ready for his second grand slam tournament — although this time around he will not carry the underdog tag.
Since his remarkable run to the Australian Open semifinals in January, the Queenstown doubles specialist’s star has continued to rise.
He is now ranked 25th in the world — 48 places above his ranking heading into the Australian Open — as he heads into the French Open next week.
There he will team with Ger man Jan
Lennard
Struff with whom he so successfully combined in
Melbourne.
Despite losing in the first round of his last preparation tournament in Lyon this week, it has been a strong claycourt leadin for the 26yearold.
He paired with Struff at the Madrid Open two weeks ago and made it to the quarterfinals.
There they fell to French duo Nicholas Mahut and PierreHugues Herbert, ranked 18th and 19th in the world respectively.
They claimed a couple of impressive scalps along the way, including a straightsets win over American duo John Isner and Jack Sock.
An ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament, the event rates in the third tier of competitions after the four grand slam tournaments and the ATP Finals.
In March he also had success at the Miami Open, also an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event.
There he combined with Struff to advance to the semifinals, before falling to brothers Bob and Mike Bryan, the most successful men’s doubles duo in history.
More recently, McLachlan reached the final of the Istanbul Open alongside Nicholas Monroe.
However, the duo was beaten by Dominic Inglot and Robert Lindstedt 36, 63, 108.
The success has helped him in the pocket too, reeling in just over $US200,000 ($NZ289,000) in prize money so far this year.
McLachlan switched nationalities to represent Japan last year, qualifying through his mother.
The move has proved a good one, having allowed him to play in the Davis Cup.
He had a breakthrough win last year at the Japan Open at which he and Japanese partner Yasutaka Uchiyama claimed the doubles title after initially gaining a wildcard spot.