Benjamin Balleret battles past Nicolas Renavand into final qualies – San Marino CEPU Open 2011 CH
The 2nd round qualifiers fired up the San Marino CEPO OPEN 2011, an ATP Challenger Tour Event, as Benjamin Balleret, the Monacan went on head-to-head against Nicolas Renavand at the Centro Tennis Cassa di Risparmio di Fonte dell'Ovo in the City of San Marino. The sizzling match ended up 6-7(8), 6-2, 7-6(6) in favour of the Monacan world No.432.
Playing the Frenchman, Nicolas Renavand, for the third time, Balleret increased his lead to 2-1 beating the 28-year-old with a narrow squeak. The two right handers, however, gave an epic show at the Centro Tennis Cassa di Risparmio di Fonte dell'Ovo. Returning each other with equal might the two went on until the last game of the match making it historic.
The high scoring game started off with its opening set leading to a tiebreak. Proving to be a head turner, the Frenchman played what we call simply unimaginable. Returning with startling forehands and equally strong backhands, Renavand took away the set with his lucky shot, volley.
The two broke each other once in the set; however, securing a massive total of 52 points in the first set, Renavand won 32 service points and 20 returners to take the lead 1-0 winning 7-6(8).
Balleret, ranked lower than the Frenchman, suddenly went magical in the second set, beating the Frenchman 6-2 with mere difficulty. The Monacan guarded his side with a rock solid defence not letting the Frenchman breach his serve even once. On the other hand, Balleret broke his challenger twice, first in the opening game and then in game 3 and settled for a 6-2 win in the second set.
The two were now level as Balleret took the second set securing 26 together with 16 service points and 10 returners.
The decider set lasted for almost an hour. Fighting for a seat in the final qualifying round, Balleret and Renavand made the game historic. Pressurizing each other with aces and returners, the two jammed the match on another tiebreaker.
The two made it seem that winning points was as hard as breaking rocks. The more the power and technique the earlier to break and so did it happen. Balleret broke the Frenchman in the tiebreaker taking away the set 7-6(6) and the match 2-1 raising his hands in the air as the fans witnessed a heroic play by the Monacan.
The three set points totalled 111 altogether with 78 service points and 33 returners to the Monacan’s win. The 32 games match ended up in two hours and fourteen minutes. Ballaret now moves on ahead to play Leonard Kirche in the final qualifying round.
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