Dusan Lajovic surprises Dudi Sela in the round of 16 – St. Petersburg Open 2011
Making into the main rounds after brilliant performances in the qualifying draws of the tournament, Dusan Lajovic of Serbia registered a stunning victory over the 97th ranked Israeli wildcard, Dudi Sela, in the second
round of the St. Petersburg Open on Thursday evening.
The Serb battled for one hour and thirty eight minutes of play to wrap up the three-setter, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, to qualify for the quarter-final of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event.
The competition was held on the indoor hard courts of the Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with the 21-year-old Lajovic registering his 3rd World Tour-level victory of the running season.
The Serbian was off to a sloppy start in the contest and was completely blown away in the opening set to suffer an early setback in the match. Lajovic turned the tables on his opponent in the following two sets and absolutely outclassed
Sela to drive him out of the tournament in a convincing fashion. He dropped just three games in the last two sets to charge into the round of eight of the St. Petersburg Open.
Lajovic delivered 73 per cent of his serve on target and secured 30 out of 45 first serve points en route to victory. His Israeli opponent closely followed him with 29 points but Sela’s inability to convert his break opportunities
let him down in the contest. The Israeli registered three out of six break points in the entire matchup while suffering six cracking breaks of serve from the Serbian qualifier to finish on the losing side in the end.
Sela was off to an aggressive start in the opener, breaking his rival in the fourth and then in the eighth game to seal the first set at 6-2. He lost all of his steam in very next set, letting Lajovic come on top with cracking
serve breaks in the third and seventh games of the second set. The Serb qualifier took the second set at 6-2 and carried on with his belligerence in the final set as well, nailing a total of four straight serve breaks to the Israeli serve to fly away to an
emphatic victory at 6-1.
Up next for Lajovic in the quarter-final round is the seventh seeded American, Alex Bogomolov, who registered a hard-fought victory against the unseeded German, Philipp Kohlschreiber, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, in the second round clash.
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