Flavio Cipolla defeats Luka Gregorc to qualify for main draw of BNP Paribas Open 2011
World number 170 Flavio Cipolla of Italy defeated Luka Gregorc of Slovenia in three sets 6-2, 6-7, 7-5 in the final round of the qualifying draw at the BNP Paribas Open 2011 on Wednesday.
The Italian took 2 hours and 39 minutes to dispatch his opponent in a close encounter.
Cipolla started the match playing aggressively, breaking Gregorc’s serve twice in the opening set. The Italian broke his opponent in the fourth and sixth game of the first set. He capitalised on the two breaks of serve and won the set 6-2.
Both players served very well in the first set. Cipolla hit a whopping 95 per cent of the first serves, winning 80 per cent of the points on them in the set. His opponent had the same first serve ratio. However, the difference between the two was the conversion
rate as Gregorc could only manage 53 per cent of the points on his first serve.
The second set saw both players breaking each other’s serve on a number of occasions. Gregorc broke Cipolla’s opening service game, taking a 3-0 lead in the second set. Cipolla broke back to level the set 3-3. The Slovene and Italian exchanged two more breaks
of serve to take the set into a tiebreak. Gregorc got the mini-break in the tiebreak and won the set 7-6.
The Slovene converted 3 of the 4 break points he received in the second set. In comparison, his opponent converted all the 3 break points he received.
With one set apiece, the decider was expected to be a fierce competition between the two. Cipolla and Gregorc broke each other’s serve twice until the 10th game in the third set, levelling the score at 5-5. At that point, Cipolla managed to hold
his serve and then broke Gregorc in the next game to win the third set 7-5 and with that, the match.
The Italian hit two aces and an amazing 100 per cent of the first serves in the final set. In comparison, Gregorc did not hit a single ace and managed to put 94 per cent of the first serves in. Cipolla saved 3 of the 5 break points he faced while Gregorc
saved 5 of the 8 break points he faced.
Earlier, Cipolla defeated American Phillip Simmonds 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the qualifying draw.
The right-handed is a former top 100 player. He achieved his highest ranking of world number 99 in July 2009.
Cipolla has a 0-1 win/loss record in the current 2011 season. He lost to Benoit Paire of France 1-6, 5-7, 1-6 in the first round of the Australian Open 2011.
The Italian will face world number 52 Xavier Malisse of Belgium in the first round of the main draw for the duo’s first-ever meeting on the Tour.
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