Dmitry Tursunov labours past Santiago Giraldo into the semi-finals – UNICEF Open 2011
28-year-old Dmitry Tursunov from Russia battled past 23-year-old Santiago Giraldo from Colombia in a three set nail biter at UNICEF Open 2011, a warm-up for Wimbledon, on Friday. He registered a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory over the Bogota
resident to advance into the semi-finals of this ATP World Tour 250 series grass court event.
World number 70, Tursunov took down the Colombian, ranked seven places above him, in a three set thriller in just under two hours. He was facing the Colombian for the first time and after earning this success at s-Hertogenbosch,
Netherlands, the Russian took the lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against Giraldo.
The Moscow born star, Tursunov confidently entered the court and broke the youngster’s serve twice to take the lead. Later, he failed to save the only breakpoint faced but clobbered an amazing 92 percent first serve share to help
win the set comfortably. The Russian also registered a magnificent 78 percent win on it, slammed four aces and converted two out of three breakpoint chances to his advantage to sugar coat it further.
The younger one, who was a finalist at Santiago earlier this season, made in-roads in the second set as he exchanged breaks early on and later converted second breakpoint opportunity to his advantage to bag the equaliser with a
6-4 win. Giraldo produced a much better first serve share of 76 percent as compared to Tursunov’s 43 percent and earned a plausible 79 percent win on it.
The Russian raised the bar of his game in the decider as he reeled off entire serves through his exquisite forehands. He saved both breakpoints conceded and converted one out of two breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to
win the set with a 6-4 score line. Tursunov registered impressive stats to him in this final set as well as he clobbered a first serve share of 69 percent and earned a superb 76 percent win on it.
Next up for Tursunov is third seeded Belgian Xavier Malisse who downed American Alex Bogomolov Jr. in straight sets to reach this spot.
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