Alex Bogdanovic ousts Chris Guccione in first round – Tiburon Challenger 2011
British International, Alex Bogdanovic, locked horns with Australian , Chris Guccione in the first round of Tiburon Challenger on October 12th, hosted in California, USA. The players had met once before in Wimbledon,
four years ago, where Australian triumphed in a spectacular three setter. This time British took his revenge and upset the world by knocking-out Guccione in straight sets 7-6(1), 6-3 in an hour and twenty-two minutes.
Guccione was going through a rough patch having lost majority of his last meetings with his opponents whilst Bogdanovic was going through a purple patch, loving his time at the pitch winning 80% of his last meetings. Ranking favoured
Guccione while form favoured the British. It was a perfect encounter on the paper and crowd were expecting the same type of performance from the players at the pitch as well.
First set was very interesting. Although British won the first set but the highlights of the match contained eight world class aces from the world number 245. Crowd roared at each of the ace and loved every bit of it. Both players
couldn’t break their opponents serve at all and this prolonged the set into the tie breaker. It was all about handling pressure and keeping your nerves. Australian lapse of concentration helped Bogdanovic to steal those critical set winners.
Bogdanovicl took the lead in the second set and created a perfect platform for himself to have his Wimbledon revenge. It was not too late before Australian bounced back and levelled the score to three games apiece. Everyone loved
every bit of this nail-biting contest and no one knew which way the match would swing. 26-year-old, Australian continued his power play with his serves and aced six more times that delighted the crowd. But it was not good enough to dismantle the confidence
of Bogdanovic who went on to win the next three games out of four to seal the victory. 27-year-old, British, lead the total points won with a rate of 55:45.
Spectators were disappointed with Guccione’s unsatisfactory performance in the second-set. They were expecting him to extend the match to the final set and provide further entertainment. Overall it was a thrilling match and Bogdanovic’s
triumph has opened new doors for further upsets.
Sixteen aces, four serve breaks and some world class tennis shots were the essence of the match. The straight sets victory helped the British to move into the second round where he would face a very tough battle against the top
seed, world number seventy, Ryan Sweeting of America.
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