Bernstein/King upset Lipsky/Ram in the opening round – Atlanta Tennis Championships Doubles 2011
The crowd at Atlanta, United States, was in for a huge surprise as the top seeded pair of Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram crashed out of the opening round of Atlanta Tennis Championships at the hands of the wildcard American duo of
Drake Bernstein and Kevin King on Wednesday afternoon.
The all-American affair ended in sheer surprise for the tennis fans, with Bernstein and King outdoing the top seeded pair in straight sets, 7-6(3), 6-3, in one hour and fourteen minutes of play to enter the quarter-final draws
of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 tournament.
Lipsky and Ram were beaten by their opponents’ excellence in the game, forcing them to end their voyage in the very first round of the tournament. The top seeded duo posed some serious resistance in the opener, dragging it into
the tie breaker round but lost their steam in the decider and never recovered in the rest of the matchup.
The top seeded pair was led down by its error-ridden game, as they both coughed a number of unforced errors in the match, including seven costly double faults to let their American fellows fly away with victory. Lipsky and Ram
delivered just 55 per cent of their serve on target and secured 18 first serve points in the opener, with their opponents reeling off 17 points.
Bernstein and King broke in the very first game of the contest to lead 2-0 and continued to play their aggressive game. The other American pair squandered away five break opportunities in the opening set before finally converting
one in the eighth game to level the contest at 4-4, followed by a regular game to dead lock the scores at 6-all. A tie breaker round came into play but Lipsky and Ram couldn’t make good use of it and secured just three points in it to gift the opening set
to their opponent sat 6-7(3).
The top seeded pair took off the next set with a break point conversion to lead 2-0 this time but a dramatic turnaround was witnessed from the sixth game, when Bernstein and King stung two consecutive serve breaks to close out
victory at 6-3 to make it into the quarter-final draws.
Bernstein and King will face the unseeded German duo of Frank Moser and Matthias Bachinger, in the next clash for a place in the semis of Atlanta Tennis Championships. The Germans defeated the other American team of Ryan Harrison
and Donald Young in the opening round of the tournament.
Tags: