Adrian Mannarino overcomes Lukas Rosol to reach the final eight – St. Petersburg open 2011
Unseeded in the draw, 86th ranked Frenchman, Adrian Mannarino, continued his brilliant run at the St. Petersburg Open by defeating the world number 78, Lukas Rosol of Czech Republic, in the second round on Wednesday
evening.
The 23-year-old French took one hour and thirty one minutes of play to overcome his opponent in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6(5), getting through to the quarter-finals of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event
in style.
Mannarino gave a huge shocker on Monday night, when he defeated the world number 12, Gilles Simon, in the opening round clash. He carried on with his winning impetus in the next round as well and gave no chance to Rosol to get
settled in the matchup. The French registered 16th victory in the running ATP season to earn his fourth quarter-final berth of the year.
Unseeded Rosol was off to a sloppy start in the opening set, letting his opponent the early momentum in the game. He was totally blown out in the first set by the belligerent game play of Mannarino but he regrouped in the following
set to pose some serious resistance to the French. Mannarino kept his focus throughout the competition and eventually concluded the matchup in his favour after a stiff fight in the second tie breaker.
The Czech competitor secured 31 out of 45 first serve points in the matchup, in reply to Mannarino’s 27 points but his inability to convert break opportunities proved much taxing in the end. Rosol converted just one out of three
break points, while the Frenchman nailed three out of eight serve breaks to come out as the winner.
Mannarino broke his opponent in the very first game of the day to lead 2-0 early. He further stung a break point in the fifth game and went on to serve out of the first set comprehensively at 6-2. Rosol finally registered his only
break point of the match in the fifth game of the following set but the French frittered away his advantage with a break of serve in the eighth game. A tie breaker round was imposed once the scores got to 6-6 and Mannarino stood tall in the decider to conclude
the matchup at 7-6(5), entering the quarter-final stage of the tournament.
Mannarino will face the world number 33, Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, in the quarter-finals to battle it out for a place in the final four. The fifth seeded home favourite defeated Julien Benneteau of France in the second round to
book a clash with Mannarino in the quarter-finals.
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