Florent Serra ousts Tobias Kamke to reach the second round – Open Sud de France 2012
Local qualifier, Florent Serra, stunned every one present at the Arena Montpellier, France, with his thrilling performance against the world number 91, Tobias Kamke of Germany, on Tuesday. 142nd rated Serra registered
a 6-3, 6-3, victory over the superior-ranked German in the first round of the Open Sud de France.
It was merely the second victory for the 30-year-old French in the current season and a much needed one as well. Serra has been absolutely belligerent in the qualifying draw of the tournament and he carried on his winning impetus
in the Tuesday’s matchup to register a surprise victory. The French veteran pocketed both sets with identical scores to march into the round of 16 at the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event in Montpellier.
Kamke was beaten in every segment of the game by the brilliance of the French qualifier. He could barely secure 13 out of 30 first serve points, whilst the veteran bagged 27 out of his 40 to come out as the winner. The German registered
three serve breaks and had to suffer six cracking ones from Serra to finish the match on the losing side in the end.
The opening set took off with immense intensity from both sides. Both contestants traded two serve breaks each to take the scores to 4-3 in favour of Serra. Another crushing break point conversion in the eighth game proved lethal
for Kamke and he had to submit the first set at 3-6.
The German dropped his serve again in the third game but snatched back the advantage in the sixth game with a hard-fought break point to level the scores 3-3. It was a one-sided affair for the French from there onwards; Serra nailed
two successive serve breaks to rocket away to 6-3, closing the matchup in an authoritative manner.
A much tougher challenge awaits Serra in the second round of the tournament; as he will go one-on-one against the world number seven, Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic, in a battle of survival. Being the top seed in the tournament,
Berdych was awarded a bye to begin his voyage of Open Sud de France from the second round of the tournament. Second seed Frenchman, Gilles Simon, third seed Gael Monfils and the fourth seeded competitor, Richard Gasquet, were the other three to received a
bye to the second round of the tournament, All the top-four seeds will play their opening matches on Wednesday to fight for a place in the quarter-finals.
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