Fabio Fognini battles past Tobias Kamke into the second round – St. Petersburg Open 2012
Fourth seed, Fabio Fognini of Italy, fought back after getting down in the first set and defeated Germany’s world number 71, Tobias Kamke, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the opening round of the St. Petersburg in Russia. The Italian contender
required two hours and five minutes to topple his opponent in a close match.
Fognini came flying in the contest, grabbing opening three games to take a 3-0 lead. The Italian maintained his lead till 4-1 but it was all Kamke show afterwards, as he grabbed five successively to seal it 6-4.
The German player did not hit any ace and committed a single double fault in the opener, maintaining a below average first serve percentage of 52 and claiming 10 of the 14 points on them. The 5ft 10in tall saved three of the four
break points he faced and converted two of the seven he received.
Kamke and Fognini held their serve in the first three games of the second set, taking the score to 2-1 in the favour of the latter. The Italian contestant hit a blow to Kamke in the fourth and consolidated on it to attain a 4-1
lead. Kamke could not win when he served to stay in contention in the eighth game, dropping it 2-6.
Fognini smashed a single ace and made the same number of double fault, keeping his first serve percentage at 65 and grabbing 10 of the 15 points on them. The Italian was almost flawless on the second ones, as he allowed his rival
to win just one of the eight points on them.
Start of the final set was steadier than the previous two, as none of the two players dropped their serve in the first five games and took the score to 3-2 in favour of Fognini. The Italian participant, though, managed to strike
in the sixth and capitalised on that advantage to triumph 6-3.
Fognini is slated to meet the world number 95, Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine, in the second round. The Ukrainian player defeated Russian lucky loser, Ivan Nedelko, in straight sets 7-6(2), 6-2 in the opener.
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