Dmitry Tursunov defeats Konstantin Kravchuk in the first round of the Status Athens Open
World number 84 Dmitry Tursunov of Russia took down his fellow compatriot Konstantin Kravchuk in the opening round of the Status Athens Open at Athens, Greece on Monday. It took just 90 minutes for the Russian to wrap up his straight sets victory at 6-3, 6-4, to step into the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event.
28-year-old Tursunov proved his tremendous abilities on the hard courts once again as he dispensed his country fellow out of the tournament in the most assertive manner. Kravchuk posed a little resistance against his opponent but couldn’t withstand the furry of the fellow Russian. He had his chances in the game but he frittered them away carelessly, which cost him the match.
Nine break opportunities came Kravchuk’s way but the Russian converted none of them to remain on the losing end in the contest. It will be better to say that Tursunov defended his baseline superbly and denied his opponent from cracking a single break point in the whole matchup.
Tursunov fired five blistering aces in the game but coughed four double faults in the process. His first serve percentage for the match was 61 but he amazingly secured 37 out of 46 points on it. The other Russian was also impressive with his serve, delivering with 66 per cent precision and nabbing 25 of 35 first serve points. The only thing which wore Kravchuk out in the contest was his inability to strike a serve break.
The contest kicked off steadily, with both player holding their serve in the opening six games to take the scores to 3-3. It was then Tursunov shifted his gears to sting the first serve break of the game leading the opener 5-3, leaving him serving for the set. The Russian winner took 22 out of 26 first serve points and served out of the first set at 6-3 to get one up in the contest.
Kravchuk took off the second set with aggression and crafted five opportunities to break the opponent’s serve but his errant strokes denied him of converting any of the chances. The two contestants secured exactly 75 per cent first serve points in the second set but the beak point from Tursunov in the eighth game made the difference. The Russian finally wrapped up the straight sets victory at 6-4 to move on to the next stage of the Status Athens Open.
Tursunov has to wait until the clash between Matwe Middelkopp of Netherlands and Dusan Lojda of Czech Republic is settled on Tuesday. The winner of the two will take on Tursunov in the second round encounter at Athens.
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