Bracciali/Starace down Dodig/Marcelo to enter semis – Roland Garros 2012
Seeded 14th in the tournament, Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace trashed the Croatian-Brazilian pair, Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo, in straight sets at the French Open 2012 on Monday. They manipulated a 6-2, 6-4 victory against their rivals to book a spot in the final four at this major clay court tournament taking place in Paris, France.
The Italian tandem required one hour and 27 minutes to stomp over their unseeded opponents in their first encounter. After stealing the limelight, Bracciali and Starace comfortably progressed into the semi-finals at this second of the four Grand Slam events.
Bracciali and Starace showed their true form in the start of their match at the Court number One. After Dodig and Marcelo kept their serve in the opening game, the Italians stroke out the following three games in a row with a break of serve. They maintained consistency in their game and reeled off the last three games successively. The Italian pair blocked the lone breakpoint they faced and capitalised on two out of seven break chances to register a 6-2 success.
The charismatic Italians kept momentum sailing into the follow-up set and held their opening serve in the second game to tie the scores at 1-1. They held their remaining serves after blocking both breakpoints they came across and capitalised on one out of four break opportunities to their advantage in the fifth game to seal the set with a 6-4 win.
All in all, Bracciali and Starace clobbered a slightly higher first serve share of 71 per cent as compared to their opponents’ 69 per cent and tremendously availed 33 out of 52 points on it. They finished the match by bagging 76 points in contrast with the Croatian-Brazilian pair’s 65 points.
Next up for the Italian duo are the top seeds, Belarus’ Max Mirnyi and Canada’s Daniel Nestor. The Belarusian-Canadian collaboration eased past their unseeded opponents, Matthew Ebden and Ryan Harrison, in straight sets to set up this battle. They manifested a lower first serve share of 53 per cent as opposed to their rivals’ 65 per cent but impressively availed 24 out of 30 points on it.
http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/scores/stats/day14/3402ms.html
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