Grega Zemlja disposes of Dominik Meffert in the qualifiers – Qatar Open 2012
Slovenian tennis player, Grega Zemlja, outplayed Germany’s Dominik Meffert in the second round qualifiers of the ExxonMobil Qatar Open on Sunday. The one-sided affair was played on the hard courts of Doha, Qatar, with the fourth
seeded Zemlja winning in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5, to move into the qualifying competition of the tournament.
Zemlja fired three aces, while Meffert scored only one in the opening set of the match. The German proved very miser with conceding unforced errors in the matchup and didn’t give away a single double fault in the opening set but
his serve precision faded away gradually as the match progressed. Meffert’s first serve winning ratio was 60% while Zemlja maintained a 70% ratio.
Slovenian was also a better player when it came to scoring points on first serve; winning 76 per cent points on his first serve while Meffert could only maintain a 60 per cent winning rate. As the match progressed, Zemlja’s weaknesses
overshadowed his game play and he was unable to save the only breakpoint he faced. On the other hand, Meffert managed to save three out of the five breakpoints he faced but could not keep up the pace and lost the first set 6-3.
Zemlja retained his dominance over Meffert in the following set. The Slovenian, ranked at number 116 in the world, was making difficulties for the 170th ranked Meffert as the German was trying his best to make a comeback in the
match. Zemlja delivered five aces which were enough to keep him in the lead but his over-ambitious shot making made him cough a number of unforced errors in the process.
He conceded four double faults but they didn’t inflicted much damage to him as he kept winning points on regularity. Meffert, on the contrary, scored an ace once but conceded three double faults. In the second set Meffert was doing
pretty well as compared to his run in the first set. In terms of points won on first serve, both players were almost equal as Zemlja won 70 per cent points while Meffert won 79 per cent points on first serve.
Both players were showing aggression in the second set for they knew it was a crucial part of the match. Their breakpoints saved were also equal as both saved 67 per cent of their breakpoints but the real difference came in their
first serves. Zemlja won 66 per cent points on his first serve while his opponent could only win 56% points. Zemlja kept the pressure and won the second set 7-5, entering the next round of the tournament.
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