American Ryan Sweeting makes it in to the quarter-finals of the Delray Beach Championships
Qualifier Ryan Sweeting of the United States defeated the third seed, Sam Querrey, in the second round of the Delray Beach International Championships on Wednesday night. Sweeting took one hour and twenty five minutes to outplay his opponent in straight
sets of 7-6, 6-4, to make a place in the quarter-finals of the ATP event.
It was an evenly poised contest with both men exhibiting a great show of professional tennis. The momentum kept oscillating in the match but Sweeting managed to win his points on crucial moments. First serve percentage for the American was 66 while his opponent
lagged behind with 60 percent. The wind factor played a significant role in the match.
“I started off well, luckily,” said the winner in his post match reviews, “I got up a break, and then the wind really started to swirl. Balls that I thought were coming into me just stopped in mid-air.”
Winning the serve points made the all difference in the game. Querrey won 65 per cent whereas his rival nabbed 74 per cent of his serve points. Sweeting’s defence was solid as he crafted plenty of cross-court return winners from the baseline. He won 39 percent
of the total return points and banged seven aces in the match.
The contest ignited with quality aggressive tennis play from both ends. Sweeting won 18 of the 22 first serve points in the opener but couldn’t save the only break chance he provided to his countryman. He got serve break opportunities on six different occasions,
merely converting one in the set.
Querrey cracked five aces in the first set but created four double-faults. The American’s defence was rigid as he denied his opponent off the serve break opportunities five times in the set. He could only win one break point but Sweeting did the same to
keep the scores levelled at 6-6.
A decisive tie breaker had to be enforced in the opening set. The decider went on neck-to-neck as both players exchanged some magnificent winners down the line. Sweeting showed his mental steel under pressure and crafted a mini-break to lead the tie breaker.
The American restricted Querrey to five points before he wrapped up the first set of the match at 7-6.
Querrey equally matched his rival in the second set in terms of first serve percentage but his baseline defence proved to be bleaker than it was in the first set. Sweeting took the advantage of some sloppy shots by his opponent, winning points by converting
them to volleys. He belted six aces and won 67 percent of the total service points in the set.
Five breaking opportunities were gifted to Querrey in the second set but the third seed squandered all of them. A single break point proved sufficient for Sweeting to seal the second set at 6-4 and move on to the quarter-final.
Sweeting will face Japan’s Kei Nishikori in the quarter final, who defeated the American wildcard James Blake in the second round to qualify.
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