Grega Zemlja battles past Jan Minar in the final qualifier – Erste Bank Open 2012
Right-hander Slovenian native, Grega Zemlja, successfully qualify for the round one of the Erste Bank Open 2012 held at the hard courts of Vienna, Austria. He battled against the Czech professional, Jan Minar, and collected his
straight set 6-4, 7-5 on the eve of Monday.
The 31-year-old, Minar commenced a reasonable start of the initial set and secured a 1-0 score. Immediately, the score line squared down twice to 1-1 in the second and 2-2 in the fourth game. However, Zemlja took hold of the lead
and cashed the only serve break chance and smartly stamped his 3-2 lead in the fifth game. After that point, the participants held their serve but the Slovenian professional did not let his rival to dominate. He dusted away all Minar’s attempts to attain the
lead and tactfully sustained his focus throughout. Ultimately, he pocketed away the opener with a 6-4 score.
World number 70, Zemlja, bombarded his rival with eight aces and converted 20 of 25 first and five of 12 second delivery points. On the contrary, the Czech tennis star bagged away exactly same initial serve of 68 percent with 12
of 17 points.
In the second set the two players started with a fairly equal pace and the battled hard to secure their win. Like before, the scores evened out after every other game as they oscillated the win repeatedly but held their serves
the entire time. Progressing towards the end, the 26-year-old Slovenian professional completely turned the tables by cashing Minar’s serve in the 11th game and shattered his hope to win. Irrespective of the pressure, he nudged up to the front line
and terminated the set with a 7-5 win.
Ranked 304th in the ATP World Tour Rankings, the Czech participant thundered his rival with three aces and had a 63 percent initial serve precision. He attained 18 of 24 first and six of 14 second delivery point score.
On the other hand, the Slovenian attained 66 percent first serve accuracy with 16 of 19 first and eight of 10 second serve points. He was lucky enough to secure one of three break points, which gave him the edge.
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