Denis Istomin scuttles past Michael Russell to progress to the quarter-finals – SAP Open 2012
World number 61, Denis Istomin, crushed the American tennis professional, Michael Russell, in the second round battle of the SAP Open tournament, contested in San Jose, America. On Thursday, both contestants locked horns for the
third time in their professional careers and Istomin drowned the American in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 within an hour.
The previous two results were equally shared with one win apiece between both contestants. Istomin defeated Russell last year in the same draw as this match, while the American veteran defeated the Uzbek in the Sony Ericsson Open
in 2010.
It was obvious that the fifth seed Uzbek was the favourite to win the contest provided his sublime run of form in the recent past and psychological advantage of ousting the American in similar draw last year.
The Uzbek kicked-off the match with a successful serve game and registered the first breakpoint in the fourth game of the set. He consolidated his position with three successive serve holds as the scores progressed to 4-1. Russell
was beaten by the pace of the returns and his inability to cover the ground in time.
Istomin continued to hammer his opponent and broke his serve in the eighth game to confirm his opening set triumph. It was getting ominous for the American who was already tiring after playing just a single set. Even if he had
defeated the Uzbek in the following set, he would have not been left with enough stamina to clinch any success in the third set.
The second opening games did the trick for the Uzbek who broke serve twice and register a resounding lead of 4-0. Istomin had already smashed an eye-startling ace with his opponent committing three double-faults on the other end.
The Uzbek converted three out of six allotted breakpoints and won 55 points in total to march into the next round of the tournament.
Russell is probably on the verge of his retirement, given his tiring legs and fatigues body are unable to meet the fresh talented players of this era.
Denis Istomin will take on the injury-stricken former world number one, Andy Roddick, in the quarter-final on Friday.
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