Dustin Brown slays Konstantin Kravchuk in opening round – Salzburg Indoors 2011
Germany’s Dustin Brown vaporised Konstantin Kravchuk of Russia with a breadstick at the Salzburg Indoors 2011, an ATP Challenger Tour event taking place on the indoor hard courts in Salzburg, Austria. He jolted down 6-2, 6-1 victory
over his 26-year-old age fellow to secure a second round spot on Wednesday.
The Montego Bay resident, Brown took just forty-nine minutes to tumble over the Russian, ranked 178th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, on their first duel. His exceptional skills and abilities not
only led him into the second round but also inched towards the $85,000 prize money.
World number 180, Brown got the desiderated break early on to subsequently go 4-1 up. He then broke Russian’s serve again in the eighth game to seal the opener by winning six games to two. The German dusted away both breakpoints
came across and cashed in half of the four breakpoint opportunities to his advantage. He manipulated a lower first serve share of 54 percent as compared to Kravchuk’s 60 percent but registered a tremendous 77 percent win on it.
The German kept momentum sailing into the final set. After the Russian held his opening serve in the second game, Brown unleashed flurry of groundstrokes to reel off next five games in a row and bagged a breadstick. He faced zero
breakpoint and converted two out of three breakpoint chances to his advantage. In addition to this, the German manifested a better first serve share of 78 percent as compared to Kravchuk’s 60 percent and earned a magnificent 78 percent win on it. He then put
a cherry on the set by firing six powerful aces down the lines.
Next up for Brown is the eight seeded local hero, Andreas Haider-Maurer who breezed past Czech Jan Mertl in straight sets to set-up this meeting.
The seed required one hour and sixteen minutes to overwhelm resilience posed by the Czech on their first encounter.
Maurer defended all four breakpoints faced and cashed in the only breakpoint opportunity to his advantage to clinch the opener with a 6-3 win.
24-year-old Austrian carried his winning ways in the final set and after brushing off both breakpoints faced, he held entire serves convincingly. Furthermore, he capitalised on two out of four breakpoint opportunities to his advantage
to seal the set with a similar 6-3 score line again.
Overall, he manipulated a slightly higher first serve share of 53 percent in contrast with Mertl’s 51 percent and registered a fascinating 84 percent win on it.
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