Fabio Fognini slaughters Adrian Mannarino to cruise into round two – French Open 2012
Italian star, Fabio Fognini, crushed the local wildcard entrant, Adrian Mannarino, with a bagel at the Roland Garros 2012 on Sunday. He barely sweated to formulate a 6-0, 7-5, 6-1 victory against the 23-year-old in the opening round at this Grand Slam event taking place in Paris, France.
Fognini displayed his best tennis at Court One and triumphed over the left-handed French in their maiden encounter. After pocketing this match, he not only took lead in the FedEx ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Head 2 Head series by 1-0 against the world number 153 but also progressed into the second round.
The 25-year-old thundered into this second Grand Slam event of the season and wiped out the opening six games in a row through exquisite forehands from his arsenal of skills. He bagged his entire serves without facing any breakpoint and capitalised on three out of four break chances to bake the bagel.
Ranked 45th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Fognini lost his path towards the follow-up set and tossed away his opening serve to trail at 0-2. However, he stayed calm and grasped his break back in the sixth game. The Italian held remaining serves with conviction and got the breakthrough in the last game to click the set with a 7-5 win.
In the third set, Fognini perfected his game again and leaped to a 3-0 lead with a break of serve. He brushed off all three breakpoints he came across to keep his entire serves. After Mannarino held his serve in the fourth game, the Italian stroke out the last three games and clinched the set with a breadstick.
All in all, the ecstatic Italian manipulated a better first serve share of 71 per cent as compared to Mannarino’s 55 per cent and brilliantly marked 38 out of 53 points on it. He also hammered 28 winners and finished the match with 93 points in contrast with his rival’s 60.
Up next for the in-form Fognini is the conqueror of the match between 28th seed Viktor Troicki and the Brazilian challenger, Thomaz Bellucci. The Italian needs to maintain consistency in his game to reach far at this event.
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