Cabal/ Farah oust Kuznetsov/ Sirianni in quarterfinals – L, G & T Tennis Challenger 2011
Colombian duo of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, top seed at this year’s Levene Gouldin & Thompson Tennis Challenger, defeated unseeded American-Australian duo of Alex Kuznetsov and Joseph Sirianni in three difficult sets
6-2, 1-6, 10-8 to move into the semi-finals of the tournament.
The winning pair survived a second set wobble against their opponent to advance to next round and although they made lot of silly mistakes during the match, they still had enough to dispatch the American-Australian duo of Kuznetsov
and Sirianni.
The match started off as was anticipated, with Cabal and Farah edging ahead. The to-seeded pair served 70 percent of the first serve correctly, compared to Kuznetsov and Sirianni’s 50 percent. They also won a whopping 81 percent
of the points on first serve, while the American-Australian pair only managed to take 50 percent behind them. Such weak serving by the American-Australian duo saw him only four break points, out of which they only managed to save two. Being unable to threaten
their opponent’s serve, Kuznetsov and Sirianni lost the first set with a 6-2 scoreline.
The second set saw a resurgent American-Australian duo as they completely dominated their opponent’s serving and only allowing them to win 53 percent on first serve, and held their own well this time to clinch 64 percent behind
them. Continuing with the ascent, they went to save hundred percent of the break points to level the match on even terms, 6-2, 6-1.
The final set of the match observed some excellent shot-making by both the players. Again, it was the American-Australian pair of Kuznetsov and Sirianni, whose serving was not up the mark as they only landed in 67 percent of the
first serves, while Cabal and Farah once again outshined with landing hundred percent of the first serve correctly. The top-seeded duo’s conversion rate was also better, as they took their opponent’s return to task and grabbed 56 percent of points on serve,
opposed to Kuznetsov and Sirianni’s 50 percent, allowing the top-seeded pair to enter the semi-finals of the tournament, taking just 59 minutes of play.
Kuznetsov and Sirianni concluded their three-set effort with a meager difference of just one point in total. They now move on into the next round of the tournament where they are scheduled to meet either third seeded duo Australian-American
pair of Jordan Kerr and David Martin, or the unseeded pair of Japan’s Yuichi Sugita and Slovenia’s Grega Zemlja.
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