Bernard Tomic overpowers Julien Benneteau in the first round – Brisbane International 2012
Aussie world number 42, Bernard Tomic dodged an upset against word number 52, Julien Benneteau of France, in the first round of the Brisbane International tournament. It was the third encounter between the two contenders and finally the local boy helped
himself with the first win over the French tennis ace. Both players clashed on Monday, January 2ndand after a severe battle of two hours and 27 minutes, Aussie won the contest with a cumulative score of 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.
Previous two encounters between the two players were played in 2011 and on both occasions the French professional was able to sneak away with a win. All the matches these two equally talented competitors played have been three-setters and both of them are
always hungry to overpower one another. This time it was the deserving local teenager that got off the mark with his first win over his rival.
Aussie kicked off the proceedings in the most emphatic fashion, striking couple of aces in the first game and smashing eye-startling winners down the line in the second game to clinch the first break point of the match. He kept on dominating the proceedings
and took 3-0 lead upfront.
Eighth seeded Aussie teenager left nothing to spare for his experienced competitor and broke once again in the fourth game to take 4-0 lead. It seemed as if the teenager will clean sweep his rival in the first set but Benneteau didn’t let it go that easily.
With 5-0 lead and cruising, Tomic’s was stunned by his rival who broke his serve in the seventh game and prolonged the set a bit.
Local boy calmed his nerves and broke his rival’s serve once again to seal the set in his favour. Trailing one set down and completely owned by the teenager, Benneteau looked a bit frustrated. Tomic resumed the proceedings and held his serve in the second
set to push the score to 1-0. The momentum of the game was slowed a bit by the visitor who held his respected serves and the scores slowly moved to three games apiece.
Tomic was flabbergasted once again as the visitor broke his serve and held his own to take two games lead that lasted till the end of the set. Score moved to 5-4 and at that stage and Tomic had to break in the next game to keep the set alive but he failed
to do so. Match was evenly poised with one set apiece and the crowd loved every bit of it.
Third set started slowly but picked up pace in the midst of the final encounter. Score was poised at two games apiece when both players exchanged breaks and pushed the score to 3-3. No more drama was seen and score finally hinted to enter a tie breaker at
5-6 in favour of the teenager with visitor to serve. Crucial breakpoint at that stage helped the local boy win an emphatic battle and placed him the second round in the tournament.
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