Adrian Mannarino defeats Leonardo Mayer to clear the first round at the Delray Beach Championships
Eighth seed Frenchman Adrian Mannarino won his opening round match 6-1, 7-6, 6-4 against the Argentine Leonardo Mayer at the Delray Beach International Championships on Wednesday. The match was exciting, as both players fought hard to get the upper-hand.
Mannarino displayed tremendous fighting skills to recover from a one-set deficit and take the win.
The back-and-forth battle lasted for two hours and fifteen minutes on the hard courts of Delray Beach, as the momentum of the game kept oscillating throughout the contest. The players strained hard to get on top. The earlier part of the game witnessed a
complete domination from Mayer, but the Argentine gradually dropped his game later.
A total of 184 points were played in the contest, as Mayer won 96 and Mannarino took 88 points, yet the Argentine could not overcome his rival in the game.
Mannarino had a sluggish start and took time to settle down, as he barely won half of his first serve points and never crafted a serve break chance in the first set. The Frenchman failed to convert any of the return points either.
The 23-year-old Argentine kicked off the opener in an attacking manner and belted two serve breaks early. He took the advantage of his opponent’s slow start very well and won 100 per cent of his first serve points. Mayer never faced a break point in the
set and sealed the opener at an assertive score of 6-1.
The following set witnessed an abrupt change in the pace of the contest, as the Frenchman bounced back strongly with his accurate serve. He lifted his first serve percentage to 65 and never allowed a serve break chance to Mayer this time. Once again, Mayer
impressed the fans by winning 100 per cent of his first serve points in the second set. Mannarino squandered two break points in the set, dragging it into a decisive tie breaker round.
The Frenchman shifted his gears quickly in the tie breaker and reeled off three consecutive points to lead 6-3. Mannarino comprehensively won the second set tie breaker by 7-6, levelling the match with one set a piece.
The all important third set started with an exchange of serve breaks from both men. Mayer’s game took a down slide in the later portion of the third set. The Argentine had won all of his first serve points in the last two sets, but could only convert 42
per cent of his points in the final set.
Mannarino kept building pressure upon the opponent with his error-free tennis. The Frenchman banged another break point towards the closing of the third set and sealed the decider at 6-4.
It was a hard-fought victory for Mannarino, who will be facing off against the Columbian qualifier, Alejandro Falla, in the second round of the tournament. Falla had made it to the second round after his Czech opponent, Jan Hajek, forfeited from the match
due to injuries.
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