Denis Kudla rallies past Austin Smith into second round qualies – Atlanta Tennis Championships 2011
Seeded at number seven in the qualifying draws, Denis Kudla of the Unite States, drowned his fellow compatriot, Austin Smith in the second round qualifiers of the Atlanta Tennis Championships on Sunday afternoon.
In the outdoor hard-court tournament being played at Atlanta, United States, Kudla displayed his brilliant tennis skills to outclass his fellow countryman in straight sets 6-4, 6-4, to make it to the final round of the qualifying
draws. The contest took one hour and fourteen minutes to conclude, with Kudla getting one step closer to the main draws of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 tournament.
The contest was evenly posed in most of the segments, except Smith losing some crucial opportunities to lose the game. Both men delivered their 66 per cent of first serve on target and were off to a cautious start in the opening
set. Kudla secured 15 out of 19 first serve points and was far better than his opponent with his return game as well.
A regular game took the scores to 3-all in the opener but Kudla stung a crucial serve break in the seventh game to get into a 5-3 lead, after holding his serve in the next game. Smith failed dot recover from the loss he suffered
from his opponent’s serve break and kept on spilling silly errors in the game to assist the other American. Kudla served out of the opener at 6-4, to get a substantial position in the matchup.
The fourth seeded American dropped his serve precision in the following set to 57 per cent, coughing five double faults in the process but still managed to secure 14 first serve points to keep the upper hand in the contest. Smith
bounced right in the game by breaking into a 3-0 lead in the second set but failed to sustain his momentum in the later parts.
Kudla back fired at his opponent in a couple of games later, nailing a serve break to curtail the deficit to 2-3. A regular game then took the scores to 4-4, when Kudla struck an all-important serve break to close out victory at
6-4 to move into the final round of the qualifiers of the Atlanta Tennis Championships.
Up next for Kudla is the top seed competitor from Australia, Marinko Matosevic, in the qualifying competition. Matosevic outplayed the other American competitor, Mac Styslinger, in straight sets 7-5, 6-0, in the second round of
the contest.
Tags: