Guillaume Rufin bounces over Matthias Bachinger to enter main draw – Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters 2012
French contender, Guillaume Rufin, upset the qualifying 12th seed, Matthias Bachinger, in a three set thriller at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters 2012 on Sunday. He summed up a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory against the world number 122 to secure a place
in the opening round at this ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour Masters 1000 event held in Monaco.
Rufin made an epic comeback from a set down to overpower the seed in almost two hours. Facing each other for the first time, Rufin assertively secured a spot in the first round at this clay court event.
The Munich native showed his class in the opening game at the Monte Carlo Country Club and drew the first blood in the opening game. After Rufin held his serve in the third game, Bachinger unleashed barrage of groundstrokes and wiped out the proceeding four
games in a row. He cashed in three out of nine break opportunities and was never challenged with any breakpoint.
Rufin made a fitting reply in the follow-up set and earned the desiderated break in the opening game. Despite losing his edge in the very next game, he broke his opponent’s serve twice more and sealed the equaliser by winning six games to three.
The 21-year-old lost his track again in the final set and suffered the first blow in the opening game. However, he snatched his break back in the fourth game and after capitalising on another break chance, Rufin clinched the decider with a 6-3 score line.
All in all, the French clobbered a poor first serve share of 45 per cent as opposed to Bachinger’s 59 per cent but acceptably clicked 22 out of 38 points on it. He spilled more double faults but smashed four aces to cover it up.
Next up for Rufin is the German star, Philipp Kohlschreiber, in the opening round.
The Italian youngster, Alessandro Giannessi, will accompany Rufin in the main draw. He devastated Spain’s Daniel Gimeno-Traver with a breadstick in 81 minutes to progress. The Italian lost his serve once but capitalised on three out of nine break opportunities
to manipulate a 6-1, 7-6(2) score line.
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