2011 French Open: Mikhail Kukushkin sails past Daniel Brands into the second round
Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin eased past German Daniel Brands in straight sets in their opening matchup at the 2011 Roland Garros, a major clay court tournament held in Paris, France. 23-year-old registered a 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 success over
his German age fellow to cruise into the second round on Monday.
The Kazakh, ranked 62 in the ATP World Tour Singles rankings, took 116 minutes to dump Brands, ranked 68 places below him, in straight sets. Kukushkin hammered only thirteen winners to German’s twenty-four but clobbered eleven
unforced errors to Brands’ forty-two which made the difference.
He thundered into the first set and quickly held his opening serve. Regardless of producing a poor first serve share of 73 percent, Kukushkin held his remaining serves convincingly. The Kazakh saved all five breakpoints conceded
through his amazing defensive skills and agility. He converted two out of six breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to clinch the set with a 6-2 win in thirty-eight minutes.
Kukushkin kept his momentumrolling into the second set and held his entire serves by pinging the balls expertly onto the lines. He was recently standing on a five match losing streak but snapped out of it by winning two matches
in Dusseldorf last week. The Kazakh saved the only breakpoint faced and converted one out of two breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to seal the set with a 6-4 score line.
He carried his tricks and abilities in the final set and swept past the German by converting the only breakpoint opportunity to his advantage. The Kazakh faced zero breakpoint and registered an exceptional 93 percent win on his
higher first serve share.
Brands is in drastic form this season. He reached the final at Heilbronn Challenger though the German lost his touch after failing to clinch the title match. After losing to Kazakh, he extended his losing streak to seven matches.
Up next for the Kazakh is the twelfth seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny who downed Japanese Go Soeda in straight sets to reach this spot.
Tobias Kamke, another German who participated in this major event, faced a different fate. He bounced back to win against Belgian Olivier Rochus in a four set thriller. Kamke saved six out of nine breakpoints and converted eight
out of eighteen breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to seal the deal in 171 minutes. World number 76 German registered a 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 victory over the Belgian, ranked just one place below him, to book a second round spot.
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