Andreas Seppi downs Nikolay Davydenko in opening round – Roland Garros 2012
Seeded 22nd in the tournament, Andreas Seppi from Italy, got the better of the former world number three, Nikolay Davydenko, in straight sets at the French Open 2012 on Monday. He summed up a 6-3, 7-6(5), 7-5 victory against the Russian veteran
to charge into the second round at this Grand Slam event taking place in Paris, France.
The Italian contender showed tremendous skills and abilities to outclass Davydenko in their sixth meeting. After earning this success, Seppi not only levelled the FedEx ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Head 2 Head series by 3-3 against the Russian
but also booked a place in the round of 64.
Seppi thundered into the court number 17 and drew the first blood in the opening game to jump to a 2-0 lead. Despite losing the next three games, the Italian unleashed flurry of groundstrokes and went on a four-game rampage to pull out the opener with a
6-3 score line.
Ranked 25th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Seppi carried his winning ways in the following set and reeled off the opening three games in a row to leap to a 3-0 lead. Regardless of squandering his edge in the ninth game,
the Italian plucked remaining serves and dragged the set to the tie-breaker. He took a 4-2 lead in it before sealing the set with a 7-6(5) win.
The 28-year-old remained on track in the third set and held his opening serves to level the scores at 1-1. He played amazing tennis and not only slid his remaining serves but cashed in the lone break opportunity in the 11th game to click the set
by winning seven games to five.
Overall, Seppi manipulated a lower first serve share of 63 per cent as compared to his rival’s 72 per cent but impressively availed 47 out of 60 points on it. The in-form Italian committed more unforced errors but fired 13 vicious aces to dominate the battle.
Next up for the high flying Italian is the Kazakhstani contestant, Mikhail Kukushkin, who battled past Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis in a five-set nail-biter to set-up this meeting.
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