Amer Delic overcomes resistance from Artem Sitak in first round – Tiburon Challenger 2011
Amer Delic of Bosnia squared off against the New-Zealand International, Artem Sitak in the first round of Tiburon Challenger, hosted in California, USA on October 12th. This was the first encounter between the two contestants
which ended with Bosnian’s triumph over Sitak in a thrilling three setter. Sitka continued his resistance for two hours eleven minutes and after an exhilarating battle Former world number 60 won the match with a score of 4-6, 6-4 and 6-2.
Bosnian international had a shaky run recently losing five out of his nine previous encounters. World number 417, Sitak, was relatively having a better run with just three loses in last nine matches. These stats hinted towards
a thrilling encounter and it was not any different. Both players were battling it out to triumph over one another and no one was ready to head down and accept defeat.
World number 417 started off the first set in an exciting fashion winning the first games and putting pressure on his counterpart. Delic came back to level the score with 1 game apiece. This see-saw battle continued until the score
reached to 4-4 each. The atmosphere was heating up and crowd loved every second of that. Kiwi’s International broke his opponents serve and capitalized on that by winning the last game of the set as well. Both players struck one ace and Kiwi International
secured 34 total points compared to 29 of his counterpart. This left the match favourite Amer Delic trailing by one set.
Bosnian calmed his nerves and relaxed during the break. He came back as a much more influential player who was all fired up to pull things back into his favour. He took the lead at the start of the set and shifted the pressure
on the 25-year-old youngster. The sea-saw battle continued in the second set and pushed the score line to 4-4 games apiece in the second set as well; but this time it was Delic who capitalized on the break points and poised the match with a score one set apiece.
He sealed the set with 37 total points compared to 30 of his opponent. Sitak’s highlights in the second set were four fierce aces which brought the crowd on their feet.
Third set was just a mere consolation for the Kiwi who looked a bit tired and was worn out with the length of the first two sets. Bosnian International capitalized on this shortcoming of his opponent and didn’t allow him any chance
whatsoever to have any sort of impact in the final set. He broke Sitak’s serve twice and scored two aces to grab the final set and seal his berth in the second round of the tournament.
He will now face the third seed local hero, Sam Querrey, in the second round of the tournament.
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