Dmitry Tursunov stuns Xavier Malisse; floats into the final – UNICEF Open 2011
Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov put a solid display of tennis to ward off late resistance from the third seeded Belgian Xavier Malisse to win in straight sets at UNICEF Open 2011, a grass court tournament held in s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
He registered a 6-3, 7-6(1) victory over the 30-year-old Belgian to advance into the final on Friday.
A former top twenty player, Tursunov took one and three quarter hour to down the Russian, ranked 41st in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, in straight sets on their sixth meeting. They previously faced
each other at French Open where Malisse overpowered the Russian in three sets. Tursunov, however, took revenge of his loss by prevailing at this ATP World Tour 250 series event. As a result, Tursunov lowered the trail in their head-to-head series by 2-4 against
Malisse.
The Russian, ranked 29 places below his rival, entered the court confidently and capitalised on the many unforced errors and two double faults Malisse committed to have an edge to him. Despite failing to save the only breakpoint
faced, Tursunov converted both breakpoint chances to his advantage to clinch the opener with a convincing 6-3 win.
He clobbered a slightly lower first serve share of 63 percent as compared to Malisse’s 67 percent and registered an impressive 76 percent win on it.
28-year-old kept momentum sailing into the final set and after getting an early coveted break, he was serving for the match at 5-4 before the Belgian roared back to convert a breakpoint chance to his advantage and squared the scores.
However, Malisse only dragged the set to a tie-breaker to eventually exit from the event after stepping off the gas in it.
A former world number nineteen, Malisse hasn’t had much progress this season but he reeled off three straight victories for the first time at this event since reaching the final at Chennai in January. He lost his ways in this match
and regardless of producing a higher first serve share in the match, the Belgian committed eight double faults to gift away his serves.
Tursunov on the other hand, rolled the balls expertly onto the line and played his best tennis. He is currently in great form as the Russian made three final berths at ATP Challenger Tour events. He won the titles at Singapore
and Bath but lost to German Matthias Bachinger in the final at Athens Challenger.
Tursunov said about his next match, "I don’t know Dodig very well. I know that he’s been doing really well this year; he won Zagreb. He’s been doing well on all sorts of surfaces. He’s beaten good players this week, so I’m going
to have to come out and play until the last point, and take the initiative when I have the chance."
Fourth seed, Croat Ivan Dodig is his next challenger. The Croat dumped second seeded Cyprian Marcos Baghdatis with a breadstick to reach this spot.
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