Benoit Paire overcomes Alex Kuznetsov in the qualifying competition – Sony Ericsson Open 2012
Qualifying fifth seed, Benoit Paire of France battled past the local rising star, Alex Kuznetsov, in a three set thriller at the Sony Ericsson Open, a Masters 1000 event taking place at Key Biscayne in Miami. He formulated a 6-1,
2-6, 6-4 victory over the 25-year-old to advance into the final round of the qualifying competition on Monday.
The world number 96 dominated throughout the match and pulled out the victory in three sets in their first encounter. He lost his serve three times but broke the American’s serve four times to secure a place in the following round.
Paire blasted into the Floridian hard courts and after drawing the first blood in the second game, he went 3-0 up. After Kuznetsov came on the score sheet for the first time in the fourth game, he stroke out the following three
games successively and bagged a breadstick.
Ranked 195th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Kuznetsov found the track in the second set. He earned the coveted break in the fourth game and subsequently took a 4-1 lead. The American then maintained
his intensity and not only slid remaining serves but broke again in the last game to clinch the equaliser with a 6-2 score line.
The 22-year-old re-gathered his energy in the final set and broke Kuznetsov’s serve in the very first game. Despite losing his edge in the proceeding game, the French remained calm and kept remaining serves. He got the breakthrough
in the fifth game and pocketed the decider with a 6-4 win.
Paire fired 10 aces in the match and in spite of manipulating a lower first serve share, he bagged the match in one hour and 26 minutes. He also brilliantly clicked 28 out of 38 points on his first serve share and converted four
out of 10 break opportunities to his advantage.
Next up for the French seed is the Belgian contender, David Goffin, who earned a retirement victory over the 17th seed, Jurgen Zopp, to set-up this clash. The Belgian was leading 4-0 when his rival was forced to retire
due to an injury.
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