Adrian Mannarino defeats Luca Vanni in the first round – Istanbul Challenger 2012
World number 189, Adrian Mannarino, rallied past the Italian, Luca Vanni, in the first round of the American Express Istanbul Challenger 2012, held at the hard courts of Turkey. The Frenchman jolted his straight
sets victory, 6-4, 6-2, in one hour and 11 minutes on Monday.
The Italian very confidently stepped on the hard courts but was unable to maintain his initial serve in the start of the opening set and bestowing the lead to Mannarino by 2-love. The Frenchman successfully maintained
his dominance throughout and attained a 4-2 lead to exert pressure upon his rival. Although, Vanni struggled hard to upset but it was impossible to deviate his rival’s focus and after a tough battle, he lost the set with a 4-6 score.
Ranked 300th in the ATP World Tour Rankings, Vanni, smashed five aces against his rival but double faulted three times in the set. He had a 57 percent first serve accuracy, winning 13
of 16 points on it. Mannarino fired four aces and had 70 percent serve precision, pocketting15 of 21 points.
In the second set, the left-hander French tennis professional drew the first blood and efficiently brought the score line to 1-0. However, Vanni did not give up that quick and evened it out by 1-all in the next
game. The 24-year-old exhibited his excellent run of form and broke his challenger’s serve in the third round at 2-1 and 5-2 in the seventh game. Like before, he sustained his superior game plan and held his serve throughout the set, eventually emerging to
the surface with a 6-2 win.
The 27-year-old Italian double faulted four times in the set and had a below-average first serve precision of 43 percent. This time around, he could only manage to pocket away seven of 12 first and seven of 16
second serve points. On the contrary, Mannarino delivered 65 percent first serve on target, snatching away 13 of 15 delivery and five of 12 first return points in the ending set.
In the second round the French, will contest against the Russian contender, Igor Kunitsyn, who rallied past the German Mischa Zverev, 6-3, 7-5, in his opening match. Mannarino needs to concentrate more his game
plan if he intends to continue in the tournament. He received a straight sets defeat at the hands of the German, Matthias Bachinger, in the final qualifier of the US Open 2012 last week.
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