Benoit Paire steers clear of Leonardo Mayer in the quarterfinal – San Marino CEPU Open 2011 CH
France’s Benoit Paire, eighth seed at the San Marino CEPU Open 2011 successfully booked his place in the semi finals by ousting Argentinean Leonardo Mayer. Paire won the quarter final in under one hour and twelve minutes,
with the score board standing squarely in his account at 6-4, 6-3 at the Centro Tennis Cassa di Risparmio di Fonte dell'Ovo. Paire is joined by Potito Starace, Martin Klizan and Marc Gicquel to make up the top four of this year’s edition
of the famous clay ATP Challenger.
Currently ranked at No. 119, eighth seed Paire made way to the quarterfinals by dismissing Serbia’s Nikola Ciric in a three set thriller 6-7(0), 6-4, 6-4 earlier this week. With a current win loss mark of 4-9,
the Frenchman had broken into the exclusive top 100 in May this year. Paire’s opponent, the former World No. 51 Mayer too had been playing excellently on the challenger circuit. Mayer recently finished runner up to Steve Darcis at Trani, Italy before opening
his San Marino campaign.
Paire played the opening game of the first set and took off on a relatively uneventful journey to the 6-4 mark. Paire won 13 points from his 17 serves, while serving at a first serve percentage of 59%. Mayer meanwhile
remained within fighting distance by capitalising on 73% of the 54% serves that he was able to connect. Paire registered the first serve break of the set in the fourth game, limiting his opponent to 30 points in that game. Mayer managed to fight back with
a matching breakpoint in the set’s second last game but was quickly subdued by a seething breakpoint conversion by Paire in the last game.
The second set opened with a flurry of activity as both the players broke each other serves once in the second and third games. First Paire limited the Argentinean to 15 points by breaking his serve in the second game
only to be matched by Mayer’s successful breakpoint conversion in the third game. Paire served exceedingly well in this set, managing a serve efficiency of 63% and fired an unforgiving volley of 4 aces to render his opponent hapless. Paire sealed the set and
with it the game at a decisive 6-3.
Paire’s next match will probably be his toughest in the competition yet when he faces off against top seed Italian Potito Starace. With resounding performances under his belt at San Marino, Starace is primed to win his
first ATP Challenger title since June 2009.
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