Henri Laaksonen surprises Rik de Voest in the first round – Geneva Open 2012 CH
Wild card entrant, Henri Laaksonen, stunned his South African senior, Rik de Voest, in a three set nail biting match at the Geneva Open 2012 held at the hard courts of GreenSet GrandPrix, Switzerland. He penned down a 6-7(8), 7-6(5),
7-6(6) triumph against his rival and attained the decent spot in the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour Challenger Series event on the eve of Tuesday.
The lower-ranked Swiss professional commenced a brilliant start of the opener and drew the first blood by cashing his challenger’s serve in the third game. The score line levelled down to 3-all in the sixth game and both contenders
kept labouring hard to get in the driving seat. After that point, the local challenger started to lose momentum. However, the score line evened out one after the other game and the two contenders held their serves the entire time. Eventually, the higher ranked
South African professional terminated the set with a 7-6(8) score after a close tie-breaker round.
The world number 358, Laaksonen, thundered five aces but committed double faults three times. He attained 55 percent initial serve accuracy, pocketing away 21 of 26 first and nine of 21 second serve points. He lost the lead because
he capitalized on one of four serve breaks and contestant snatched away one of two. The South African veteran had 61 percent initial serve with 23 of 31 first and 11 of 20 second delivery points.
In the second set, the two challengers preserved their serves and gave each other a tough time. They showed their tremendous abilities to outsmart each other and kept the score board ticking on even terms. Laaksonen beautifully
served and gained his momentum as the contest progressed towards the end. Consequently, he clinched his win after a fiercely battling in the tiebreaker round to stamp a 7-6(5) lead.
The 32-year-old, Voest, shelled his challenger with five aces secured a better initial serve of 60 percent precision. He bagged away 21 of 28 first and 10 of 19 second delivery points. The Swiss junior secured 51 percent first
serve with 17 of 21 first and 12 of 20 second serve points.
In the decider, none of the professional sustained their rhythm but the 20-year-old Swiss changed his strategy and struggled hard to snatch the lead. He bumped into his competitor by smashing powerful aces and proved to be a lethal
threat for the South African as his lead started to slip. As before, the right-hander Swiss closed the match with a 7-6(6) win.
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