Benjamin Becker overcomes Adrian Mannarino to reach the quarter-finals – IPP Open 2012 CH
Third seeded German veteran, Benjamin Becker, put away the solid resistance from the French underdog, Adrian Mannarino, to win the second round clash of IPP Open on Wednesday. The 31-year-old laboured for one hour and 17 minutes
to register a 7-5, 6-4, final score line and advanced to the quarter-final round of the ATP Challenger Tour event in Helsinki, Finland.
It was the first encounter between these two contestants and none of them had much idea of his opponent’s game play. They both took an aggressive start to gain some early advantage in the contest and assertive blows were exchanged.
Mannarino kept moving with Becker on even terms but the German veteran used his vast experience to wrap up the proceedings in the end and took the opener to get one up in the match. The following set witnessed the similar sort of play and Becker came up with
another break point towards to conclusion to stand as the deserving winner.
Becker drew first blood in the opening game to impose a 2-0 lead right away but a strong comeback from the French contender levelled the score line to 2-2 after the fourth game. Both men held their following three serves and the
score line got levelled to 5-5. It appeared as if the opener was heading for a tie-break but Becker nailed a break point at the most crucial moment and served out of the set at 6-5.
The third seed German continued with his winning impetus in the next set and broke the French serve again in the opening game to lead 2-0. Mannarino kept struggling extremely hard to register a breakthrough but couldn’t recover
from the early damaged inflicted by 31-year-old Becker. A regular game followed, with both players holding their respective serves and the German veteran comprehensively serve out of the match at 5-4.
Becker delivered 71 per cent of his first serve on target and reeled off 32 out of 44 points on it, along with six thudding aces. He cashed in three of his nine break chances in the contest, whilst the Frenchman could register
a lone break of serve to finish on the losing side in the end.
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