Harri Heliovaara stuns Rik De Voest in 2nd round – Charlottesville Challenger 2011
In a day full of upsets, Finnish Harri Heliovaara smashed fourth seed South African Rik De Voest in the second round of the Charlottesville Challenger 2011.
The two rivals had duelled swords on indoor hard courts of the Boar’s Head Sports Club in Charlottesville, Virginia and it took Heliovaara just one hour and eighteen minutes to pulverize seventh seeded Voest in straight sets of 6-4, 6-3 on Wednesday the
2nd of November 2011.
Voest had won the service toss and had decided to serve first for the opening round but he got off to a bad start and was unable to hold his serve. On the contrary, Heliovaara had taken a mini lead by bagging two successive games and placed himself on the
scoreboard at 2-0. In the next two games, each player held his respective serve to progress the scoreboard at 3-1.
During the fifth and the sixth game, the players traded in breaks by breaking each other back-to-back and the score had further shifted to 4-2 with Heliovaara leading the set. In subsequent two games, the players once more bagged a service game each and
Heliovaara was now only a game away from victory.
However, he was unable to close the set in following game, while, Voest had reduced the deficit to 4-5 by holding his serve in the ninth game. It was in the tenth game that Heliovaara served for the set and he smashed a forehand winner to clog the opening
set and go one up in the match.
Commencing the second set of the match was Voest and this time he was able to hold off his opponent and bagged a game on his serve to kick open the scoreboard at 1-0. Heliovaara also followed in Voest’s footsteps and placed himself on the scoreboard at 1-1.
It was in the third game that Voest fumbled and double faulted on his serve and gifted away an important break to his rival. As Heliovaara held his serve, he had squandered two games to take the lead at 3-1. In the following two games, each player once more
held his serve and the score had shifted to 4-2.
The two challengers exchanged breaks during the seventh and the eighth game. Voest had reduced the deficit to 3-5 by the end of the eighth game. However, in the last game Heliovaara broke his adversary to seal his victory of the set and the match.
Heliovaara reserved a spot in the quarterfinal where he will be facing eighth seeded French Vincent Millot.
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