Edouard Roger-Vasselin receives a straight sets shocker in the first round – Moselle Open 2012
World number 117, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, received a shocker at the hands of his compatriot, Clement Reix, in the initial round of the Moselle Open held at the indoor hard courts of Metz, France. The duo encountered
each other for the first time on their home ground and the underdog formulated a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 on the eve of Tuesday.
6ft 2in Vasselin displayed a relatively poor game plan since the start of the opener. The lower ranked Frenchman broke his rival’s serve in the fourth game to mark his 3-1 lead. Vasselin seemed powerless in front
of his rival labouring hard to give his challenger a tough confrontation but miserably lost the set by 3-6.
In the second set, the higher ranked Vasselin inverted the scenario and confidently marched forward to prevail over his competitor. However, he had to face a hard battle by Reix, who squared the scores to 2-all
in the fourth game and 3-all in the sixth game respectively. His rapid progress alarmed Vasselin and he nudged forward to break his serve, concluding the set with a 6-3 lead.
Vasselin exhibited his superior run of form by firing eight aces onto his rival but manifested 65 percent initial serve, converting 14 of 15 first and six of eight second serve points. On the other hand, his
fellow citizen displayed 79 percent initial serve accuracy, grabbing 11 of 15 first and three of four second serve points.
The decider proved to be a tough voyage for both French contenders and they were desperately eyeing the victory. Reix served the first game and struggled hard to hold it. Nonetheless, Vasselin evened out the
scores four times i.e. after every alternate game, oscillating the win between the two competitors. Reix stole the last two games, busting his opponent’s serve in the end and declared himself as the winner with a 7-5 score.
Both players exhibited 70 percent first serve precision in the set. Nevertheless, Reix struggled hard to turn around the winner order and bombarded his rival with nine aces and did not even double fault once.
His challenger only fired five aces and converted 20 of 23 first and three of 10 second delivery points. He lagged behind because he was unable to secure even a single break point out of three presented to him.
Reix is drawn against his top seeded compatriot, Jo-Wilfried for the second round of the tournament.
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