Alexandre Kudryavtsev to meet Uladzimir Ignatik in final of Guangzhou Challenger Series 2011
Alexandre Kudryavtsev earned a well-deserved 7-5, 6-4 victory against Matthias Bachinger of Germany to secure a place in the final of Guangzhou Challenger Series 2011 in China.
The match was played on a competitive note as both players looked to assert dominance right from the start. Kudryavtsev broke the serve in the fifth game and then held on to his serve to take the first set 7-5.
The Russian continued to play aggressively in the second and capitalised on the physiological advantage he had gained earlier to complete his win in straight sets.
He broke his opponent’s serve with a forehand winner and executed his shots nearly to perfection in the set. His net clearance was excellent and he committed very few unforced errors in the contest. Bachinger on the other hand played some careless shots
and thus paid the price. The German tennis pro was considered as the favourite for this clash but as it turned out, he managed only a respectable defeat in the end.
Earlier Kudryavtsev defeated Japanese talent Tatsuma Ito in straight sets in the quarterfinal and showed exceptional temperament and physical ability to outsmart his opponent. He has now won 60 per cent of his matches in the last 12 months and looks in commanding
touch ahead of his final clash with Uladzimir Ignatik.
In the other semi-final, 7th seed Uladzimir crushed German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-2, 6-0 to reach his first final of the 2011 season.
The Belarusian dominated the challenger in almost all aspects of the game. His serve was lightning fast which won him crucial points in the match. With his strong backhand, he was able to push Stebe to the baseline from where he had very few answers.
Uladzimir dropped only a couple of games in the match and required just over an hour to end the proceedings. His opponent world number 335 Stebe was disappointed with his effort especially after doing all the hard work to reach that far in the competition.
Ranked 156 in the world, Uladzimir is fairly new to the international arena. He gave some impressive performances in 2010 reaching his career high of world number 156 in August 2010. However, since then he has failed to live up to the expectations slipping
to world number 200 in the rankings according to the latest release. He will be hoping to improve his ranking by winning his first title of the year.
Tags: