Benoit Paire overcomes Xavier Malisse in the initial round – Moselle Open 2012
Right-hander Frenchman, Benoit Paire, disposed his Belgian rival, Xavier Malisse, in the first round of the Moselle Open at the indoor hard courts France. The right-hand local contender jolted down his straight
sets win, 6-1, 6-4, in a total of 53 minutes.
The 23-year-old, Paire, displayed his classic performance since the start of the opener and progressed without a break. He confidently drew the first blood and dominated the score line throughout. Paire busted
his opponent’s serve in the fourth game and sixth game respectively, closing the set with a bread stick.
The French veteran displayed 54 percent initial serve precision and capitalized nine of 15 first and nine of 13 second delivery points. In comparison, his Belgian rival also had 53 percent initial serve presentation,
converting five of eight first and two of seven second serve points. He snatched away two break points out of the three presented to him, whereas the senior Belgian player could not even bag away any.
Both the players commenced a sloppy start of the second set and were unable to hold their initial serves. The 32-year-old, Malisse, evened out the score line to 2-all in the fourth game and but was unable to
dominate his rival any further. Paire nudged forward with a strong defensive approach and broke his challengers serve in the very next game. Despite Belgian professional’s tireless efforts, he was unable to upset his rival and Paire skilfully concluded the
set closure with his 6-4 win.
Ranked 58th in the ATP World Tour Rankings, Malisse manifested an exceptionally below average initial serve accuracy of 56 percent, but converting 11 out of 18 first and seven of 14 second
delivery points. He also snatched away the only one break point bestowed upon him. The French professional had 37 percent initial serve accuracy, with eight of the 10 first and 11 of 17 second serve points.
Next in the tournament, he will battle against the second seeded, Philipp Kohlschreiber. The German contestant received a bye in the earlier round; he will surely provide Paire with tough challenge in the next
match.
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