Denis Kudla eases past
Sahr Timothy Kpulun to advance in the qualies – Farmers Classic 2011
American Denis Kudla eased past Sahr Timothy Kpulun of Sierra Leone to move to the third round of the Farmers Classic 2011, presented by Mercedes Benz. Kudla secured a swiftly manoeuvred two set 6-1, 6-2 win to send his opponent
packing. The march lasted for almost sixty six minutes. Kudla will now fight for a placed in the main draws in his third round match.
In its 85th year, the iconic Southern California ATP tournament is perhaps the longest running professional annual athletic event in Los Angeles, United States. The hard courts at the Los Angeles Tennis Centre at UCLA’s
Straus Stadium will witness 28 players vying for the singles title and 16 duos participating in the doubles competition.
American Kudla, currently ranked at No. 339 is an emerging tennis professional. Last year he made it to the finals of the US Open junior event and played his first ATP quarter final match against Michael Yani at Newport earlier
this year. His Newport win was surprising for all since he had only won a single match in the ATP World Tour in his entire career. On the contrary, Kpulun has had a miserable run so far this season. He lost all three of the ITF Futures he has played to date.
Hence, even before the match’s start the odds were stacked heavily against Kpulun.
The first set of the match was a frenzy of breakpoints. In all 5 serve breaks riddled the match, enough to demolish even the more seasoned players. Serving at a satisfactory 62%, Kudla won 7 of his 13 serve points which was one
less than Kpulun’s 8 off 17. However, Kudla devastated his opponent by registering staggering 4 breaks of serve while his opponent was unable to math these and instead fought back with only 1 successfully converted breakpoint. Kudla sealed the first set with
a convincing 6-1 win against his opponent.
Kpulun stunned Kudla by breaking his serve in very first game of the second set. But Kudla quickly fought back with vengeance and registered his first serve break of the second set in the next game levelling the score at 1-1. Kpulun
who performed relatively better was unable to ward off the next two break point situations that he faced and Kudla set off on an insurmountable lead. The second set too closed in Kudla’s account at 6-2.
Kudla now faces home crowd favourite Daniel Kosakowski, the only UCLA player left in the qualifiers to contest for a place in the main draws of the tournament. All four of the final round qualifying matches will begin around 10.00
am Monday morning.
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