Adrian Mannarino strikes out Ricardas Berankis in round one – IPP Open 2011 CH
Adrian Mannarino, French world No.83 and the third seed for IPP Open 2011, outgunned his opening round challenger, Ricardas Berankis, Lithuanian world No.95, beating him down in straight set, 7-6(3), 7-5, in an hour and a half
of hard indoor circuit battle on Wednesday, 23rd of November at Tali, Helsinki, Finland.
Starting off with the fixture, Mannarino took his side to serve the match opener as he won the service toss. Firing up slow, Frenchman took away the first game of the set rolling down the scoreboard, 1-0. Following the Frenchman,
21-year-old Lithuanian smashed back his opening serve of the match to level the scores, 1-1.
Carrying on, the two rallied down a game each to level up again at 2-2 before Mannarino changed the scenario. Serving out game five, 3-2, 23-year-old Frenchman broke his lower ranked Lithuanian rival in game six and followed with
another service winner to bag three straight games and led the set, 5-2.
Berankis, on the other hand, did not give up without a fight. World No.95 struck back as he served out game eight, 5-3, broke back in the ninth game, 5-4, and levelled up serving out game ten, 5-5. Rallying down hard in the next
two games captured both the two a game each and led to a tiebreak.
However, Berankis was unable to captivate a win and lost the tiebreak. Winning the tiebreaker 7-5, and the first set 7-6(3), Mannarino now led the match, 1-0, and went on to return first in the second set.
Lithuanian, struggling to make up his mark in the opening set, took out the first game of the second set turning down the scoreboard, 1-0. Berankis struck again as he broke the higher ranked 23-year-old to lead the set two games
to zero.
Extending his lead, 21-year-old bagged his third consecutive game putting forward a concrete lead. However, that all changed later in the set. With scores at 4-1 and the two bagging a game after the straight game run by Berankis,
Mannarino served out his second win, 2-4, and ignited.
Breaking the 21-year-old in game seven, 3-4, Frenchman took back the lead as he served out game eight evening up the scores at 4-4. The two then battled out a game each to equal up at 5-5, however, Berankis was about to get his
dreams shattered.
Breaking his opening round rival, Mannarino bagged a winner leading 6-5, and followed with a startling double game point win on his serve in game twelve to finish off the set at 7-5, and the match in straight sets.
Making his way through the second round of the ATP Challenger Tour event, Mannarino now goes forward to play against Estonian, Jurgen Zopp for a spot in the quarter-finals.
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