Antonio Veic crushes Fred Simonsson in the second round qualifiers – SkiStar Swedish Open 2011
Fourth seed Antonio Veic of Croatia clears the second round qualifiers of SkiStar Swedish Open by defeating the local wildcard entrant, Fred Simonsson, on Sunday afternoon on the clay courts of Bastad, Sweden.
The one-sided contest ended to the dismay of the local crowd present, as Veic absolutely annihilated the Swede opponent in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1, to move into the final qualifying competition of the ATP (Association of Tennis
Professionals) World Tour 250 event.
It never looked Simonsson’s game at any point, as the hard-hitting Croat dominated every bit of the competition with his aggressive tennis. Veic faced no real challenge from his Swede rival throughout the contest and cruised to
victory with the utmost ease.
The Croat’s phenomenal serve proved to be his critical success factor in the matchup, as he delivered 73 per cent on target and collected 14 out of 16 first serve points in the opening set. Veic raided all parts of the opponent’s
court, firing assertive winners on regularity to exert immense pressure upon the bewildered Swede.
Simonsson dropped his serve right at the beginning of the opener, letting Veic to a 3-1 lead early in the contest. The Croat launched frequent forays to the net, converting a number of volleys into easy cross-court winners and
eventually cracked in his second serve break of the day to close out the first set at 6-2 to lead the contest by one set to none.
The following set brought in more trouble for the Swede, who went through a drastic slump in the set and started to crumble under the pressure of defeat. Although the serve precision of Veic dropped to 58 per cent in the set number
two, the Croat reeled off 10 out of 14 first serve points to keep the upper hand in the competition. Simonsson again failed to strike any serve break and kept conceding unforced errors to bestow easy points to his belligerent opponent.
The Swede held serve in just one game and suffered two serve breaks in the second set to eventually submit the contest to Veic at 1-6. The Croat’s victory over Simonsson sends him in to the final round of the qualifying draws of
the SkiStar Swedish Open, to be played on Monday afternoon.
Veic will square off against the fifth seed Spaniard, Javier Marti, in his next matchup for a place in the main draws of the tournament. Marti was successful against the other Swede competitor, Pablo Figueroa, in straight sets
6-4, 6-4, in the second round.
Tags: