Andrea Seppi, Fabio Fognini proceed to the second round of French Open
Andreas Seppi beats Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-3, 7-5, 7-5
Italian Andreas Seppi, ranked 51st in the world, prevailed over world number 85 Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia in straight sets 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 in the round of 128 of the French Open at Roland Garros on Sunday. Seppi needed
two hours and thirteen minutes to undo his opponent.
Gabashvili drew the first blood in the opening set as he broke Seppi in the third game and held his next service game to take a 3-1 lead. However, the Italian fought back and clinched five consecutive games, breaking the Russian
twice to win the set 6-3.
Seppi needed a single break of serve to bag the second set 7-5. The Italian hit two aces and eleven winners, committing a single double fault in the second set. The right-handed made just seven unforced errors and won 38 percent
of the receiving points in the second set. Seppi converted one of the seven break points on Gabashvili’s serve and did not face any break point on his own serve in the second set.
The third set went with serve in the first ten games, levelling the score at 5-5. Seppi broke the Russian in the eleventh game and served out the set at 6-5.
The six feet and three inches tall will take on either Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci or Kazakh Andrey Golubev in the second round.
Fabio Fognini defeats Denis Istomin 6-4, 6-2, 6-2
World number 49 Fabio Fognini of Italy knocked out world number 58 Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in straight sets 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the round of 64. The match lasted for just an hour and 43 minutes.
In the first set, Fognini took the lead straightaway, breaking the Uzbek in the first game and holding his serve in the next game to go ahead 2-0. Istomin came back and broke back in the sixth game to tie the score at 3-3. However,
Fognini broke again in the ninth game, serving out the set in the next game and winning it 6-4.
The Italian carried the winning momentum into the second set and broke his opponent twice, winning it 6-2. The 23-year-old had a first serve percentage of 60 percent, grabbing 73 percent of the points on them in the first set.
On the other hand, Istomin served poorly as he hit just 32 percent of the first serves correctly in the opening set.
Fognini kept Istomin under pressure and allowed the Uzbek to win just two games, capturing the set 6-2. The right-handed hit twelve winners and nine unforced errors in the third set.
The Italian is slated to play either sixth seed Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic or world number 140 Stephane Robert of France in the second round.
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