Grega Zemlja cruises past Gregoire Burquier to advance into the quarters – Guzzini Challenger 2011
Second seeded Slovene Grega Zemlja eased past French Gregoire Burquier in straight sets at the Guzzini Challenger 2011 – Trofeo Francesco Guzzini. After earning a 6-2, 6-3 success at this ATP Challenger Tour event, the Slovene
advance into the last eight on Thursday.
Ranked 136th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Zemlja took sixty-six minutes to dump the Frenchman, ranked seventy-four places below him, on their first meeting.
24-year-old Slovene confidently entered the clay court and after the scores were squared at 2-2, he unleashed barrage of groundstrokes to reel off last four games in a row and clinched with a 6-2 win. Zemlja clobbered a lower first
serve share of 62 percent as compared to Frenchman’s 71 percent but the four massive aces he slammed, led him to winning ways. The Slovene further spiced the set by saving the only breakpoint faced and by capitalising on both breakpoint opportunities to his
advantage.
After the 27-year-old Frenchman held his opening serve in the second game, Zemlja went on rage mode again to wipe out following four games consecutively. Although he lost the edge in the seventh game after gifting away his serve,
the Slovene broke Burquier’s serve again in the very next game and held his serve in the eighth game to seal the set with a 6-2 score line. He clobbered a slightly higher first serve share of 76 percent as compared to his rival’s 72 percent and registered
an impressive 63 percent win on it. Zemlja failed to save the only breakpoint conceded but cashed in on half of the four breakpoint chances to his advantage to win comfortably.
The seeded Slovene will next face the winner of the match between seventh seeded Romanian Adrian Ungur and Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut.
Fourth seeded French Kenny De Schepper will be joining Zemlja in the final eight. He slaughtered Spaniard Gerard Granollers with a breadstick to reach this spot.
Schepper rolled the balls expertly onto the lines to bag in entire serves convincingly. He then founded the only breakpoint opportunity in the last game and duly converted it to his advantage to seal the opener by winning seven
games to five.
The seed improved his ways in the final set and after Granollers held his opening serve in the second game, he went on fire to reel off last five games in a row and earned a breadstick.
Tags: