2011 French Open: Antonio Veic stands victorious against Pablo Cuevas in the opening round
Croatian qualifier drew his first blood at the French Open, as he defeated Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay in the opening round of on Monday. Being played at Paris, France, Veic was leading the contest at 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 3-1 when Cuevas
retired from the game for the reason of injury, allowing the Croatian to pass into the second round of the Grand Slam event.
The contest continued for almost two hours before the injury-stricken Cuevas pulled out of the game with severe pain in his right shoulder. He had a brilliant start to the game, winning the opening set early to get one up but the
determinant Croat made a tremendous comeback in the matchup to reel off the next two sets, getting into 2-1 lead. Veic continued to press his opponent hard in the fourth set as well and Cuevas finally quit the match with unbearable shoulder pain.
It was one of the upsets which the tennis fans witnessed on Monday afternoon, as world number 52, Cuevas, crashed out of the Grand Slam. After an authoritative beginning in the opener, the Uruguayan started to hint clear signs
of discomfort, as his game suddenly slumped in the following sets. The determinant Cuevas kept fighting in the contest, lingering through the sets before he finally forfeited in Veic’s favour when he was trailing 1-3 in the fourth set.
The Uruguayan was led down by his errant strokes, conceding a total of 34 unforced errors, including two double faults in the game. Cuevas committed just six errors in the opening set, which he won 6-4, but spilled out 28 miss
hits in the rest of the game.
Cuevas was brilliant in the opener and despite of a poor serve precision of 42 per cent, he clinched 20 out of 26 serve points to come on top. He struck a break point in the fifth game to close the first set at 6-4 and got one
up in the contest.
Tide turned in the very next set, as Veic cracked in a crucial serve break in the fourth game to get into the lead and eventually wrapped up the second set at 6-3. Cuevas’ physical condition started to get worse from there onwards
and he dropped the third set as well to be at a 1-2 deficit in the contest. Veic broke into lead once again in the fourth set and the score was 3-1 when the Uruguayan finally surrendered the match in his favour.
Veic will take on the former world number three, Nicolay Davydenko of Russia in the second round of Roland Garros.
Tags: