Igor Kunitsyn ostracizes Gilles Muller in opening match – Legg Mason Tennis Classic 2011
Russian Igor Kunitsyn scored an effective three set win over his opponent, Luxemburg’s Gilles Miller in their opening round match at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic. Floundering only in the second set Kunitsyn won 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(5)
to make headway into the second round of the Olympus US Open Series event. The seeded players, who had earlier received byes to the second round, will begin playing at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Centre in Rock Creek Park, Washington D.C. on Tuesday
and Wednesday.
The 58th ranked Russian Kunitsyn is hot on the heels of a quarter final outing at Los Angeles just last week and he has had an impressive season so far. Kunitsyn came in with a respectable win loss standing of 11-13
and his best performance was at Eastbourne where he clocked in a semi final performance against Andreas Seppi. Kunitsyn is a regular at the Washington event; he was a semi finalist to Viktor Troicki in its 2008 edition and had qualified to reach the second
round of the main draws last year.
Coming in with a win-loss mark of 10-5, the 68th ranked Muller managed to reach only till the second round at the Los Angeles event before bowing out to top seed Mardy Fish. He has built up his confidence by performing
exceptionally on the challenger circuit and his performance in Atlanta where he reached the semis was testament to this improved confidence. However things didn’t quite work seamlessly for Muller on Monday at Washington.
Serving at 55%, Muller won 11 of his 15 serve points and managed to fire 4 devastating aces to render his opponent helpless. Despite winning one breakpoint, Kunitsyn couldn’t muster enough strength to steer ahead of his opponent
who closed the set with an effective win at 6-4.
Tables turned, if only momentarily in the second set. Muller served superbly at an efficient 62% and won 88% of his first serve points off them. He scored a blistering 6 aces and managed to break Kunitsyn’s serve once. Muller sealed
the set 6-3 in his account but was unable to sustain his performance to see him through the third decisive set. The closely contested last set proved to be a cat and mouse chase to say the least and had to be decided by a tie break. Performing when it mattered
most, Kunitsyn veered past his opponent effectively limiting him to 5 points in the tie break.
This one hour and fifty three minutes match was the players’ first meeting.
Kunitsyn is now scheduled to play against sixteenth seed Finland’s Jarko Nieminen in their second round match on Tuesday. Nieminen had earlier received a bye to the second round.
Tags: