Benoit Paire battles past Grega Zemlja to lift the title – Salzburg Indoors 2011 CH
Fifth seeded French Benoit Paire rallied past seventh seeded Slovene Grega Zemlja in a three setter nail biter at the Salzburg Indoors 2011, an ATP Challenger tour event taking place on the indoor hard courts in Salzburg, Austria.
He manifested a 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4 victory over the 25-year-old Slovene to lift his second challenger title of the season.
Standing on a poor form after winning only three games out of ten, Paire lifted the level of his game in this event and clinched the second year-to-date title after battling past the Slovene. He overpowered Zemlja in an hour and
twenty-six minutes long marathon on their first meeting.
Both stars played their best tennis in the opening set and held their respective serves convincingly. The Set went to a tie-breaker where the Slovene edged over Paire and eventually pocketed the opener with a 7-6(6) success.
The high spirited Frenchman turned the tables around in the second set. He smoothly plucked in entire serves through exquisite forehands from his box of tricks and capitalised on a breakpoint opportunity in the fifth game to seal
the equaliser by winning six games to four.
Paire kept momentum rolling into the final set and after getting the first blood in the third game, he subsequently went 3-1 up. Despite squandering his lead in the eighth game, he broke the Slovene’s serve again in the proceeding
game and then held his serve to clinch the decider with a 6-4 win.
The Frenchman had a monotonous season so far. He displayed poor performance at the start of the season but raised his level of game in late March when he made a final showing at St. Brieuc Challenger (he lost to his compatriot
Maxime Teixeira in the title round). His spark stayed enlighten at Barcelona ATP World Tour event where he reached the second round through qualifiers standing on 121st rank in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings. Paire continued his
impressive run at Ostrava Challenger where he made a semi-final berth before losing to his countryman Stephane Robert.
Regardless of dipping his form afterwards and falling to a five match losing streak, the Frenchman snapped out at San Benedetto Challenger where he advanced till the quarters. His impressive run continued and he won his maiden
title at Brasov Challenger in September. In addition to this, he made last four showings at San Marino, Como and Todi before entering these Austrian hard courts in full confidence.
Tags: