2011 French Open: Sergiy Stakhovsky defeats David Guez to make it to the second round
Excellent start, for the 31st seed Ukrainian, Sergiy Stakhovsky on Sunday, as he defeated French qualifier, David Guez, in the first round of the French Open. The marathon contest took two hours and fifty three minutes
to conclude, with Stakhovsky settling the final scores at 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, to clear the opening round of the Grand Slam event.
It was in exciting game of tennis, with the Ukrainian dominating the contest most of the time. Stakhovsky displayed his mastery on the clay courts once again and registered his 16th victory of the running ATP (Association
of Tennis Professionals) season by defeating Guez for the first time in this career.
The Frenchman had a terrific start to the matchup and clinched the opening set in the tie breaker round but tended to lose his focus in the later parts of the game. Guez appeared very agile in the opening set and gave a tough time
to Stakhovsky in the contest. However, the resilient Ukrainian stood up to the task and turned the tables on his competitor in the following sets, eventually coming out as the winner.
Stakhovsky’s 61 per cent precise first serve earned him 57 out of 76 points in the game. Although the Ukrainian fired in 13 rapid aces to the opponent’s court, he spilled out 34 unforced errors in the contest, falling just one
short of Guez’s 35. He compensated for it by breaking the Frenchman eight out of 18 times and had to suffer just four serve breaks in the game.
A total of 49 winners were fired from the Ukrainian racquet, whereas Guez registered just 31 winners in the entire matchup. Intense game of tennis was observed in the opening set, as the two players battled hard to get the initial
advantage. After an exchange of one serve break from both contestants, the scores were deadlocked a t 6-6, enforcing a tie breaker round. Guez proved to be the better man in the pressure situation and sealed the first set at 7-6(7), to get one up in the contest.
Once dropping the opener, Stakhovsky bounced back very strongly in the contest and took hold of the game till the end. He reeled off the next three sets in a row to stun Guez, who had to suffer seven serve breaks in three sets
to submit the match to his opponent. Stakhovsky raced to victory after clinching the last three set with identical score of 6-3 and booked a berth in the second round of Roland Garros.
He will take on the Japanese, Kei Nishikori, who defeated Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei in the opening round of the competition.
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