Denis Kudla trounces Joshua Milton in opening round – JSM Challenger 2012
Local rising star, Denis Kudla, stomped over the British contender, Joshua Milton, in straight sets at the JSM Challenger of Champaign 2012 on Tuesday. He nudged up a 7-5, 6-3 victory against the world number 403 to charge into the round of 16 at this ATP
(Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event taking place in Champaign, Illinois, United States.
Seeded third in this tournament, Kudla showed brilliant tennis to outsmart the 23-year-old in their second meeting. The contestants previously met each other at the qualifying competition of the AEGON International last season and after bagging this match,
the American maintained his winning record.
Kudla made a sloppy entry at this hard court tournament. He suffered the first blow in the opening game and trailed at 0-1. However, the American made a fitting reply and broke his rivals’ serve twice after that, subsequently taking a 4-2 lead. Regardless
of exchanging two serve breaks after that, Kudla got the upper hand and carved out the opener with a 7-5 success. He brushed off two out of five breakpoints he came across and availed four out of nine break chances to inch towards his goal.
Ranked 143rd in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Kudla perfected his game in the following set. He got the desiderated break in the fourth game and leaped to a 4-1 lead. The American held his composure and swiped his remaining
serves, eventually sealing the set by winning six games to three. He was never threatened with any hindrance and converted one out of three break chances to his advantage.
On the whole, the seed took full advantage of five double faults and many errors Milton spilled. He also clobbered a higher first serve share of 61 per cent as compared to the Briton’s 48 per cent and impressively marked 26 out of 38 points on it.
Kudla will next face another Great Britain contestant, Alex Bogdanovic, who rallied past Jesse Witten in a three-set thriller to set up this meeting. The world number 369 lost his serve three times but capitalised on four out of nine break chances, eventually
sealing the match with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 success.
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