Edouard Roger-Vasselin overwhelms Benjamin Balleret in 2nd round – ATP ORBETELLO Challenger 2011
French tennis pro Edouard Roger-Vasselin eased past Benjamin Balleret of Monaco 6-1, 6-2 on Wednesday to make it to the third round at 2011 ATP ORBELETTO Challenger Series here in Orbetello, Italy.
Looking for place in a pre quarter-final match, Roger-Vasselin started off very positively. He looked to create break chances and pressurised his opponent to force errors of him. Serving with control and accuracy, the 27-year-old
had no problems holding on to his serve games and he broke the serve twice to build up momentum in his favour.
Placing one of his forehand winner cross court in seventh game of the set, he made three set points available to himself. Converting the first set point with a blistering serve ace, he took the set score lead 1-0.
The second set also followed a very similar trend as both players struggled to break each other’s serve. After the contestants held on to their serve games, an exciting phase of the match arrived with the game score at 2-2. However,
from there on Roger-Vasselin raised the level of his game and clinched four straight games to complete the match in straight sets.
Balleret, who is ranked 483rd in the Association of Tennis Professional ranking, put up a great fight and gave a very tough time to the Frenchman on the red clay surface. However, he lacked the firepower in several important
areas of the game. It will be fair to say that his inability to handle the pressure on big points played a crucial role in deciding the outcome of the match.
On many occasions, he failed to convert 30-0 advantage into a break point opportunity and hence paid the price. He will be looking to work on those areas of his game and come back strongly on his next ATP appearance.
Number six seed Roger-Vasselin was delighted his effort. He served brilliantly and claimed majority of the points on his serve. He was well prepared for the challenge as he executed his game plan incredibly well. He will eying
another strong performance in his next match-up to make it to the final stages of the tournament.
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