Igor Sijsling and Uladzimir Ignatik qualify for the second round of the Tennis Napoli Cup
23-year-old Dutch, Igor Sijsling took down the Serbian competitor, Nikola Ciric in the opening round clash of the Tennis Napoli Cup at Naples, Italy on Monday noon. He concluded his straight sets victory 6-3, 7-6(6), in one hour
and twenty three minutes to book a berth in the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour tournament.
Despite firing 12 thudding aces in the contest, Ciric had to suffer a straight sets defeat at the hands of the Dutch. Sijsling delivered 75 per cent of his first serve on target and belted just three aces in the whole matchup.
The key to his success proved to be his tremendous ability to win crucial points on regularity and limited number of unforced errors.
Though the Dutch had to bear six aces from his opponent in the first set, he reeled off 100 per cent of his first serve points to remain one step ahead of the Serb. He stung a critical serve break in the seventh game to seal the
opener at 6-3 and get one up in the contest.
More intense tennis was witnessed in the following set, with the two contestants exchanging one serve break each early. Both men keep pushing their opponent to his limits and took the scores to 6-6 to impose a decisive tie breaker
round. Ciric competed well in the decider but the Dutch proved to be the better man, finishing off the contest at 7-6(6) and move on to the second stage of the competition.
Sijsling’s next opponent will be either of the two Italians, fourth seed Andreas Haider-Maurer and seventh seeded Alessio di Mauro, in the second round at Naples. The Italians will battle it out on Tuesday and the winner will take
on Sijsling.
In an other opening round match being played at Naples, Uladzimir Ignatik of Belarus dispensed the Austrian wildcard entrant, Thomas Muster in straight sets 6-3, 7-5. The Belarusian took 93 minutes to wrap up victory and reached
the second round of the tournament.
In the error-ridden contest, Ignatik conceded seven double faults while his opponent committed six of them. The Belarusian had a brilliant start to the contest, breaking the opponent in the third and sixth game to wind up the first
set at 6-3. He conceded no double faults in the opener but coughed seven of those in the following set to let Muster bounce back in the game. The Austrian capitalised upon the mistakes of his opponent and struck three break points but Ignatik retaliated with
four break points to leave him answerless.
Despite of plenty of unforced errors, the Belarusian wrapped up the contest at 7-5 and stepped up into the second round of the Tennis Napoli Cup. Up next for him will be the second seeded Italian Filippo Volandri or the Canadian,
Peter Polansky.
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