Dustin Brown edges past Simone Vagnozzi into 2nd round – Orleans Challenger 2011

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Dustin Brown edges past Simone Vagnozzi into 2nd round – Orleans Challenger 2011
German Dustin Brown locked horns with the Italian Simone Vagnozzi in the first round of the Orleans Challenger event in France on Monday October 17th. It was the second meeting between the two and a perfect chance for
the Italian to take the revenge of his earlier loss during this year in May during Zagreb Challenger but it was not to be the case this time. Brown doubled his head-to-head lead by beating the Italian in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 6-4. The encounter
between the two lasted for an hour and nine minutes.
Both players were going through their poorest of times and were not able to proceed to any advanced rounds of previous events. Brown had just won two of his last nine encounters whilst Vagnozzi had won five of his last nine.
German was 15 ranks superior to his opponent and was comfortably placed at the 151st spot. The previous encounter between the two was a three setter so crowd expected the same and gathered up in numbers in the expectation
of another thrilling three setter encounter.
The score doesn’t do justice to the game play of the Italian who deserved much more than just four games. His second serve returns were a treat to watch; he registered 62% return serve points winning rate. He broke his opponent’s
serve twice during the first set but lost the set with a minute difference of just five points.
26-year-old German was much more composed during the first set but had some difficult moments which were tackled brilliantly by him. He broke his opponent’s serve thrice and registered an exciting 65% first serve winning rate.
He stole the first set with three aces and some astonishing game play at the crucial stages of the set.
Second set was the carbon copy of the first set. 28-year-old tried really hard to push the match into the third set but the combination of scintillating play from the German and some unforced errors at the critical stages lost
him the match.
Italian continued his classy serve returns and registered a massive 58% points winning rate in that but he couldn’t follow it up with his own serves and lost 43% points on his own serves. Two break-points in the earlier stages
of the second set also went in vain due to unforced errors at the end of the set.
World No.151 held on to his nerves after the initial slipup of few games and came back strong breaking his opponent’s serve thrice and capitalizing on his own serves to register a victory. He scored two fuming aces and rounded
off the match in great style. He won 53% of total points and it was good enough to land him the berth in the second round.