Evgeny Korolev upsets Karol Beck in the second round of the Status Athens Open
The crowd at Athens was in for a surprise as the fifth seed Karol Beck of Slovakia got defeated by the unseeded Kazakh, Evgeny Korolev in the second round of the Status Athens Open in Greece on Wednesday. Korolev toiled for one
hour and forty four minutes before completing his straight sets victory 6-4, 6-4, to dispense Beck out of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event.
29-year-old Beck failed to exhibit his vintage class and was taken by surprise by the young Kazakh. The Slovak banged in six thudding aces in the game, while serving his first serve with merely 56 per cent precision. Beck’s own
mistakes led him down in the contest as he squandered plenty of easy opportunities to remain on the losing end of the match.
The 23-year-old Kazakh put up an excellent performance to defeat the fifth seed competitor in the match. His 71 per cent accurate first serve earned him 31 of 44 points in the game and he conceded just two double faults in the
matchup. Korolev constructed 15 chances to break the opponent’s serve but could convert just three of them, which depicts how hard he had to labour to overcome Beck. The Slovak’s baseline defence was stiff but Beck’s sloppy footwork provided ample opportunities
to Korolev to breach it on regularly.
The opener had a steady start, with the two players being tentative and getting their eye in the contest. A routine game took the scores to 3-3, when Korolev shifted his gears to crack in the first serve break of the match to lead
4-3. He collected 23 of 32 total serve points in the opening set to get the competitive advantage. Beck couldn’t recover from the damage inflicted by the serve break and had to submit the first set to his opponent at 4-6.
More intense tennis was witnessed in the next set as the two contestants threw their best at each other. The Kazakh crafted 10 break chances in the second set but could avail a mere two of them. Beck regrouped his skills to break
his opponent’s serve in the sixth game but Korolev stung his second break point of the set to edge past him and wrap up victory at 6-4.
Korolev has to face another top seed player, Dmitry Tursunov, in the quarter-final clash at the Status Athens Open. The second seeded Russian won his second round match against Dusan Lojda of Czech Republic to meet Korolev in the
round of eight at Athens.
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