Flavio Cipolla defeats Bernard Tomic in first round – Malaysian Open 2011
Firing off today, Wednesday, 28th September, Flavio Cipolla played the 2nd last match of the opening round against the 18-year-old Australian, Bernard Tomic winning it 6-2, 6-2, in an hour and 12 minutes.
Playing at Putra Stadium, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian, Cipolla had a rather one way game for himself as he rocked out the Aussie on the Indoor hard court.
Aged 27, the world No.96, even with the disparity in rankings succeeded in winning the 2nd round seat of the Malaysian Open against the world No. 59. Lately the Aussie youngster has been not in his best form. Winning
just 3 matches out of the 10 he last played added another to his loosing run. Cipolla on the other hand had 6 wins and mostly on hard court which added a great deal in his win.
Moving on with the match, walking down the court, the two got applaud from the stands. Winning the service toss, Tomic opened up the first game of the fixture and scores first, 1-0. Levelling up next Cipolla switched the serve
and stood to return.
With a bang early in the set, Cipolla smashed out a backhander to ignite the match winning a breakpoint. With scores at 2-1 and the Italian in the lead, the 18-year-old struck back breaking the 27-year-olds serve and levelling
up at 2-2.
Cipolla held on to his offence and mixed up his net play with volleys’ and sneaked up the scoreboard winning another breakpoint, 3-2. Tomic, however, was unable to break back and lagged behind. The Italian kept on hopping up in
the set winning game 6, 4-2.
Hoping to cut down the lead, Aussie youngster served next, however, fell short and gave away a crucial breakpoint. Serving out the next game, Cipolla bagged the set with a serve-break-serve technique, 6-2.
With the two continuing with the second set, Tomic served out the first game for the second time in the match. Levelling up next the Italian mustered game 3 breaking the Aussie and led the scoreboard, 2-1. With the 18-year-old
old now down and struggling, the match became more of a practice session for the 27-year-old.
Mustering away with the 4th game win, Cipolla was now in command and leading towards an eventual victory. Tomic did cut down a game but the Italian defence was much stronger for the 18-year-old to break.
The Italian stallion punctured the Aussies defences once again in the set in game 7 and led on to serve out the final game winning the second set with the same score as the first, 6-2.
Cipolla now moves on to the 2nd round to play against the third seeded Serbian, Janko Tipsarevic, for a spot in the quarterfinals of the event.
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