Adrian Mannarino prevails over Grega Zemlja in the semi-finals – Istanbul Challenger 2012 CH
Left-hander, Adrian Mannarino, gave a shocker to the Slovenian, Grega Zemlja, in the semi-finals of the American Express Istanbul Challenger 2012, held at the hard courts of Turkey. The Frenchman consolidated
his straight sets, 7-6(5), 6-4 triumph in a nearly one hours and 42 minutes.
Both the competitors contested each other for the first time after the St. Brieuc Challenger, France. Mannarino rallied past his rival in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 in the quarter-finals at his home ground.
Although, both the players were unable to uphold their initial serves in the opener, the Frenchman drew he first blood and brought the score line to 2-1. However, the Slovenian native busted Mannarino’s serve
in the fifth game and jolted down a 3-2 lead. This response activated the French professional broke Zemlja’s serve in the next game, bringing the score line to 3-all. After that point, the scores squared down three times and eventually concluded the set with
a tie-break. Mannarino successfully dealt with his opponent and glided to the front line with a 7-6(5) score.
Third seeded Zemlja bombarded eight aces onto his rival and secured 72 percent initial serve precision, successfully capturing 23 of 33 points. On the contrary, the lower ranked French had a lowers serve accuracy
of 67 percent. He managed to attain 18 of 26 first and six of 13 second delivery points.
The 25-year-old Slovenian professional lost all his confidence and was unable to respond to his challenger’s strong serves. Mannarino dissolved his serve in the third game marking a 2-1 score and seventh game
by 5-2. Even though Zemlja struggled hard to take over his opponent, he miserably failed and the French candidate wrapped up the set with a 6-4 win.
Mannarino displayed 61 percent initial serve precision and pinching away 14 of 20 points. Fortunately, he secured the win by successfully snatching away two out of three serve breaks, whereas his rival could
only manage to capitalize one of the five.
For the final, he will fight against the Russian competitor, Dmitry Tursunov. The eighth seed gave a straight sets shocker to the American Michael Russell in his most recent matchup.
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