Gilles Muller battles past Sergei Bubka into second round – Rennes Challenger 2011
Top seeded Luxembourger Gilles Muller battled past Ukrainian Sergei Bubka into the second round of the 2011 Open de Rennes in Rennes, France on Wednesday, 12th October. Part of the ATP Challenger Tour, Gilles Muller
is striving for a spot in the Sao Paulo Challenger Tour Finals in November. Starting his title ascent, Gilles Muller survived a mid match lapse against Bubka securing a 7-5, 6-7(3), 6-4 win in two hours and six minutes.
Winning the toss, Muller opened serve and successfully put himself on the scoreboard. Following closely in his heels and matching blow for blow, Bubka kept the scoreboard ticking on even terms. Standing at 3-3, Bubka broke his
opponent to go 4-3 in the lead, extending it to 5-3 on his service. However, breaking back in the tenth game, Muller once more brought the scoreboard to even terms. Capitalising on another breakpoint opportunity in the twelfth game, Muller was able to go one
up in the set score as he clinched a 7-5 win.
The neck-to-neck run between the two talented professionals continued well into the second set as neither player let up on their serves. Levelled at every point of the set, the scoreboard eventually saw the first tiebreaker of
the game. However, Muller lost steam in the tiebreaker as Bubka rushed to an early 2-0 lead extending it to 5-1 moments later. Although Muller managed to win two mores points, they weren’t enough as Bubka reeled off two straight points to clinch a 7-3 win
in the tiebreaker, bringing the set scores to even terms.
With a set win apiece, the match entered the decider. Recomposing in the third set, Muller clinched an early 2-1 lead as he broke Bubka in the third game. Riding the single breakpoint, Muller continued to win on his serve. Although
he never broke his opponent again, Muller put up an impregnable defence eventually clinching a 6-4 win ensuring his berth in the second round of the event.
In a match that lasted a little over two hours, Muller hit a total of fifteen aces and five double faults as he hit an amazing 89 percent on his first serve to clinch a total of 96 of 187 points to win the match.
Muller now moves on ahead to play Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis in the second round. Berankis moved ahead on Tuesday after doing away with local wildcard entrant Gregoire Burquier in straight 6-4 6-2 sets in sixty one minutes.
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