BNP Paribas Open, Men’s Qualifiers: Daniel Brands vs. Scott Lipsky
The BNP Paribas Open, the first ATP Masters event of the year, gets underway at Indian Wells, California, in a few days. Before the main draw gets underway though, it has to be completed. The qualifying phase involves 48 players who participate in a knock-out
tournament until 12 of them are left. These are the 12 that gain entry into the main draw and help complete it.
The field of qualifiers at this year’s Indian Wells masters is led by Daniel Brands. A 23-year-old from Germany, he is currently ranked 80th in the World. His opponent in the first round of qualifying was Scott Lipsky, a 29-year-old from the United
States of America who does not hold a singles ranking currently. However, he was ranked 315th in the World during 2006, and his current doubles ranking is a healthy 43rd in the world. Brands defeated Lipsky quite comprehensively, 6-3
and 7-5.
The German has so far featured in 4 main draw ATP tour matches this year. He defeated Ivo Karlovic at Zagreb to get to the second round at Zagreb, eventually losing to Ivan Lubijicic, but lost during the first round at Brisbane to Lukasz Kubot and at the
Australian Open to Sergiy Stakhovsky. Starting the year off ranked 105th in the world, his season so far has been good enough to push him up 22 places. Besides the ATP tour, he has participated in two Challengers events, one at Heilbron and the
other at Wolfsburg. At Heilbron, he progressed to the final of the event, where he lost to his compatriot Bastian Knittel.
Lipsky has not yet played any singles matches this year. He has been active on the doubles tour however, and has already won an ATP 250 level event at San Jose, along with his regular partner, Ram Rajeev. He also made the finals at Johannesburg, and his
year to date win-loss record is 12-5.
Both players were relatively in form going into the match, but Brands had the definite edge, considering that this was a singles tie, something Lipsky had not played in for quite some time. The first set saw both players serving well, with the German landing
in 59 per cent of his first serve and the American managing a slightly better 68 per cent. The 23-year-old was a much better converter though, as he managed to convert 81 per cent of his correct first serves into points for himself. His opponent only managed
76 per cent and the difference proved to be crucial in deciding the outcome of the set. Brands capitalized on his only break point, and that handed him the set.
The second set was a little closer. Brands created a lot more chances to go ahead, but was not able to do so until the last two games. He created 5 opportunities to break and converted only one, while his opponent squandered the only chance he got. The break
gave the German the match, and he awaits Indian Rohan Bopanna in his next round match.
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