Daniel Brands survives against Kenny de Schepper in the first round – IPP Open 2011 CH
On Tuesday November 23rd, it was German Daniel Brands that held his French rival, Kenny de Schepper, in the first round of IPP Open, contested in hard court, Greenset in Finland. It was the first encounter between the two contenders that lasted
for an hour and 17 minutes with a cumulative score of 7-5, 7-6(4).
Traditional start to the match saw both players holding on to their serves upfront and not providing any opportunity to their rivals to take any sort of advantage. The score moved from 1-1 to 5-5 without any drama in the first set.
First 10 games incorporated 4 aces apiece from both players but World No.139, Schepper, double-faulted twice. Just one win in the last nine encounters was a clear cut message that French was going through very rough period having failed to make any impact
in majority of his match lately.
Schepper started off the eleventh game and struck a delicately placed ace but he knew little that he will see some eye-startling winners from his competitor shortly. Brands came back strong and smashed some ravishing forehand and backhand shots that helped
him win his second opportunity to break his opponent’s serve that he capitalized on and took the lead 6-5.
Brands was serving for the set in the last game and he made no mistake in clinching the first set and placing pressure on his 2 ranks inferior opponent. He took the first set with a difference eight points and added one more miserable ending to a promising
start for the French.
Trailing one set, Schepper fought back hard and continued to hang on to his serves. German had an opportunity on three different occasions to break his rival’s serve but he couldn’t grasp any of the allotted chances. The set was evenly poised until the tie-breaker
was enforced.
It was a do or die situation for the French. He was low on confidence due to his poor run of form in recent past. He started the tie-breaker with an ace but followed it with a disappointing double-fault that provided his competitor with a golden opportunity
to have a lead.
Brands didn’t made any sort of mistake in the tie-breaker and took the 2 points lead till the end that confirmed his spot in the second round draws. Another disappointing loss for the French saw him losing his ninth game in the last ten encounters.
Daniel Brands will lock horns with the winner of the match between Paolo Lorenzi and Joshua Milton.
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