Grega Zemlja trounces Karol Beck in the quarterfinals – Istanbul Challenger 2012
Third seeded Slovenian, Grega Zemlja, contested against the Slovakian veteran, Karol Beck, in the quarter-finals of the Istanbul Challenger on the eve of Friday. He summed up his 7-5, 6-3 triumph and successfully made his way to the semi-finals of the ATP Challenger Tour event.
After his Friday’s success in Istanbul, the Slovenian marked his 4-love lead in the head-2-head series against his rival. Previously, the duo had encountered each other in the semi-finals at the Beijing Challenger 2012, marking his straight sets win, 6-4, 6-4.
The 25-year-old Slovenian exhibited his classic run of form and thundered onto his rival to draw the first blood in the opener. However, he was unable to maintain his serve in the fifth game and Beck broke his rival’s serve to get hold of the momentum. The game pattern continued and the right-hander Slovakian clinched a 5-3 lead by the middle of the set. Zemlja nudged forward and broke his rival’s serve, stamping the set with a 7-5 score.
In the final set, the 78th ranked Slovenian showed his improved game plan to take the better of his opponent. The seventh seeded, Beck, broke his rival’s serve in the fifth game, securing a 3-2 lead but the scores evened out to 3-all in the very next game. Zemlja progressed positively in the set and did not give a single chance to his rival to dominate. Towards the end, he broke Beck’s serve and closed the match with his 6-3 win.
World number 134, Slovakian, successfully bombarded five aces on his rival and committed double faults seven times at the critical moments in the match. Alongside that, he also had a low initial serve accuracy of 45 percent, capitalizing on 23 of 30 points en route to victory. The right-hander Slovenian professional smashed three aces, with a relatively better first serve precision of 64 percent, winning 40 out of 55 points on it. The primary reason of his confidence was his high serve break conservation score of eight of 10 points.
The Slovenian tennis professional will contest against Adrian Mannarino in the semi-finals of the Challenger. The Frenchman battled past the Spanish Adrian Menendez-Maceiras in the previous round.
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