Igor Andreev edges past Pere Riba in the opening round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia
Surprise struck tennis fans at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy, when the 106 ranked Igor Andreev of Russia defeated the world number 71, Pere Riba of Spain in the first round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Monday. The Russian
took one hour and thirty nine minutes to conclude his straight sets victory at 6-4, 7-5, to make it into the second round of the clay-court tournament.
The enthralling contest was a test of nerves for the both contestants but Andreev proved to be the better man around. He registered his eighth victory of the running year to step into the next round of the ATP (Association of Tennis
Professionals) World Tour 1000 tournament. It was the first time the Russian faced Riba in any World Tour event and he proved his mettle to overcome the Spaniard in a stiff contest.
The 27-year-old Russian veteran beat his opponent in every segment of the game and eventually secured a straight sets victory. Andreev constructed 11 opportunities to break the opponent’s serve and converted five of them en route
to victory. He suffered three serve breaks in the game but kept nabbing crucial points on regularity to keep the upper hand in the contest.
Riba had a sloppy start to the opener, with a below par serve of just 48 percent. He suffered an early break point from the Russian but managed to crack a serve break in the sixth game to level the scores to 3-3. The aggressive
Russian executed some elegant ground strokes to belt his second serve break of the game and was left serving for the set at 5-4. He secured 19 of 28 total serve points and comprehensively served out of the first set at 6-4 to get one up in the competition.
The Spaniard uplifted his first serve percentage to 69 and had a strict check over his mistakes in the following set. Riba stung two serve breaks in the second set but the determinant Russian was up to the task, breaking the Spaniard’s
serve on three different occasions. Andreev kept exerting pressure upon Riba, who finally crumbled in the twelfth game of the second set, submitting the contest at 5-7. The Russian got through to the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where he
will be squaring off against the 16th seed, Richard Gasquet of France. The Frenchman defeated Spaniard, Albert Montanes in straight sets 6-2, 6-3, in the opening round of the competition to meet Andreev in the second round at Rome.
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