Antonio Veic labours against Simone Boleli to secure main draw spot in the French Open
Croat Antonia Veic stunned qualifying twenty-third seed Italian Simone Bolelli in a three set thriller on Friday. He registered a 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 success against the 25-year-old Italian to advance into the main draw of the 2011 French
Open, second of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments.
23-year-old Croat lost to the Italian in his home soil at Umag last year but took his revenge after triumphing over Bolelli in this most endurable tennis tournament in the world.
Ranked 225th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Veic hasn’t had much progress this season so far. However, he re-focused his strategy at the right time and right place i.e. Stade Roland Garros. The
Croat upset second seeded Horacio Zeballos in the first round of qualifiers. He then rallied past Argentinean Facundo Bagnis to reach this spot.
Veic thrashed into the opening set and pocketed a breadstick in the opener in twenty-three minutes. He moved the seeded Italian all over the court and shot the balls perfectly onto the lines. The Croat easily clinched the first
set by converting two out of three breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
Bolelli, who recently won the Rome Challenger, got on track in the second set and held his opening serve plausibly. He gave his all in this set and defended all the points through his amazing defending skills. The Italian faced
zero breakpoints and converted one out of two breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to seal the equaliser with a 6-3 win.
Both players entered the decider in high spirits and played their best tennis. However, the Croat outshined Bolelli, ranked 129, in every department of tennis in this final set. He
Overall Veic produced an acceptable first serve share of 58 percent as compared to slightly lower of the Italian’s 56 percent and registered an exceptional 76 percent win on it. Regardless of clobbering more double faults and fewer
aces, he displayed fantastic skills in the match to book a main draw spot.
He will next face Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas. The 25-year-old Uruguayan started the season with a drastic form but later raised her level of game to make semi-final berths at Houston and Estoril.
Top seeded qualifier, Alex Bogomolov Jr. was also stunned on another court. The American lost to twenty-sixth seeded Belgian Steve Darcis with a breadstick. However, he won’t be sharing the same fate since he entered the main draw
after some players withdrew due to injuries.
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