Alex Bogomolov Jr. stomps over Jarkko Nieminen into second round – Rakuten Open 2011
America’s Alex Bogomolov Jr. eased past Finn Jarkko Nieminen in straight sets at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2011, an ATP World Tour 500 series event taking place in Koto, Tokyo, Japan. He is bidding for his maiden
title here after registering a 6-4, 6-4 victory over the 30-year-old Finn and secured a second round spot on Tuesday.
The Moscow native, Bogomolov Jr. broke the Finn’s serve three times to earn the victory in almost one and half hour on their first meeting. He not only took lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against Nieminen but also inched
towards the US$1,100,000 prize money.
Ranked 38th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Bogomolov Jr. confidently entered the Ariake Coliseum and smoothly held entire serves after saving both breakpoints came across. He founded five breakpoint
opportunities and capitalised on one in the tenth game to clinch the opener with a 6-4 win. In addition to this, the American clobbered an amazing first serve share of 90 percent as compared to Nieminen’s 75 percent and registered a plausible 69 percent win
on it.
28-year-old American unleashed flurry of groundstrokes in the final set to reel off first four games in a row before the Finn could hold on. Despite facing a bump in the sixth game after gifting away his serve, the Bogomolov Jr.
held remaining serves to seal the victory with a similar 6-4 score line. He again manifested a higher first serve share of 75 percent as opposed to Nieminen’s 65 percent and earned a magnificent 72 percent win on it.
The beaming American will next face the winner of the match between second seeded British Andy Murray and Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis. Regardless of finding his rhythm in this match, Bogomolov Jr. needs to raise the bar of his game
to face a seed and to advance further for the coveted title.
Rising star Canadian, Milos Raonic will be joining Bogomolov Jr. in the second round. He took two hours and twelve minutes to triumph over a local wild card enterant Yuichi Sugita with a 6-7(4), 6-3, 7-6(1) victory.
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