Dmitry Tursunov strains past Dusan Lojda in the second round of the Status Athens Open
World number 84 Dmitry Tursunov of Russia stood victorious in the hard-fought battle against Dusan Lojda of Czech Republic in the second round of the Status Athens Open at Athens, Greece on Wednesday. The thriller continued for
one hour and fifty four minutes before the second seeded Russian finally overcame his opponent in straight sets 7-6(3), 7-6(7), to carry on his voyage at the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event.
It was one of the most enthralling contests of the tournament with a nail biting finish. The two contestants stretched each other to their limits and both sets were decided by the tie breaker rounds. Momentum kept oscillating in
the back-and-forth affair, with Tursunov eventually coming out as the winner.
The 23-year-old Czech competed brilliantly in the contest against one of the top seeded competitors and hung in the game till the end. He bettered Tursunov in some segments of the game but tend to lose his nerve in the intense
pressure situations of the competition, ability well observed in the Russian winner.
The second seed cracked 12 fiery aces in the contest, while Lojda following him with eight. Both players registered two serve breaks in the match to drag the sets into decisive tie breaker rounds. a total of 166 points were played
in the game, with Tursunov winning 88 and the Czech nabbing 78 out of them.
The contest kicked off with some exceptional power hitting from both contestants. Tursunov was the first one to break serve and get to 4-3 lead but was brought down by his opponent after Lojda belted a break point to level the
scores at 5-5. None of the players was prepared to submit the game and hence the opener was taken into tie breaker. The Czech lost his steam in the decider and merely scores three points to gift the first set to Tursunov at 6-7(3).
The following set was a complete replication of the first one, as the competitors hauled the game in to the tie breaker round one more after exchanging one serve break each. The tie breaker was extended to 16 points this time before
Tursunov delivered the final blow to seal victory at 7-6(7) and move ahead to the quarter-final round of the Status Athens Open.
Tursunov will be squaring off against Evgeny Korolev, who upset the fifth seed Karol Beck in the second round in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.
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