Florent Serra ousted Ryan Harrison in the Delray Beach Championships
World no. 75 Florent Serra of France defeated the unseeded American Ryan Harrison in their first round match at Delray Beach International Championships on Monday night.
Serra outplayed his opponent in a three-set thriller by 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and fifty five minutes. It was a brilliant game of tennis as both players put out their best in the game. Serra once again showed his excellent tennis
skills on the hard-courts to make an entrance into the second round.
The critical success factor for the Frenchman was his phenomenal serve. Serra had an inspiring first serve percentage of 73 but merely cracked five aces in the match. He won 49 of the total 66 first serve points and further bagged
60 percent of the second serve points.
The American also posted impressive serve statistics. Harrison smoked 11 aces to the opposite court but had an average serve percentage of 57. He converted 44 of his 58 first serve points and was good on returning as well.
Harrison got to a flyer in the opening set and immediately struck a serve break. The American displayed some powerful ground strokes throughout the opener but double-faulted twice to lift the pressure off his opponent. His double-fault
count went to 6 for the whole match.
The Frenchman was a bit sluggish in the beginning and took his time to get settled. By the time Serra got his eye in the game, the American had reeled off most of the games to close the first set at 6-3.
Serra shifted his gears in the next set and started exerting pressure upon his opponent with his aggressive stroke. His on-the-run shots were very impressive as he converted some powerful forehands from Harrison into elegant cross-court
winners. His error count was on the lower side while the American kept making silly mistakes.
First serve percentage for the Frenchman rose to an impressive figure of 80 and he converted 17 of his 20 serve points. Although Serra squandered a serve breaking opportunity in the second set, but only one break point proved enough
for him to seal the set at 6-3 and level the match at one all.
Both men fought hard to clinch the decider. Harrison’s serve dropped dramatically to a lower level as he coughed 4 double faults and failed to convert a breaking opportunity. His bleak serve gave five serve break chances to the
Frenchman, who merely cashed in one towards the end to register the final set at 7-5.
Serra advances to the second round of the tournament where he will be taking on the winner of the match between the South African Open champion, Kevin Anderson and the American, Donald Young.
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