Aljaz Bedene slays Christoph Lessiak to advance in qualies – Croatia Open Umag 2011
Qualifying seventh seed, Slovene Aljaz Bedene eased past Austrian Christoph Lessiak with a breadstick at the qualifying competition of the Studena Croatia Open Umag, an ATP World Tour 250 series event held on the clay courts in
Umag, Croatia. He registered a 6-1, 6-4 victory over the world number 841 to advance into the final round of the qualifiers on Sunday.
Ranked 272nd in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Bedene showed extra-ordinary skills to triumph over the Austrian in one hour and six minutes on their first meeting. He has now booked a final round
spot of the qualifiers and is eyeing to reach far in this event.
After the 24-year-old Austrian held his opening serve in the first game, Bedene– who is two years younger than him, went on savage. He unleashed flurry of groundstrokes to reel off next six games in a row to earn a breadstick.
Regardless of committing a lower first serve share and many unforced errors and double faults, the Slovene saved all four breakpoints faced and converted two out of three breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to win comfortably.
Bedene carried his winning ways into the final set and held his opening serve through exquisite forehands from his box of tricks. He then found the coveted break in the seventh game to eventually clinch the set with a 6-4 score
line. The Slovene clobbered an equal first serve share of 52 percent but earned a superb 92 percent win on it. He faced zero breakpoint and cashed in on one out of five breakpoint opportunities to his advantage. Bedene then sugar coated the set by hammering
six ferocious aces down the line.
Up next for the Slovene is third seeded Spaniard Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo who downed a local star, Marin Franjicevic in straight sets to advance in this event.
The Spaniard saved the only breakpoint faced in the opening set and converted two out of five breakpoint chances to his advantage to bag the opener with a 6-2 score line. He broke the Croat’s serve in the very first game to make
an epic entry in the court. Hidalgo got the second break in the fifth game to make a 4-1 lead.
He kept same spirit in the final set as he unleashed his true form to reel off four consecutive games before Franjicevic could hold on. Despite losing his serve in the sixth game, the Spaniard held remaining serves to seal the
set with a 6-4 win.
The Spaniard overpowered the Croat on their first meeting in one hour and forty minutes.
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