Igor Sijsling stuns Philipp Kohlschreiber to book a quarter-final berth – Moselle open 2011
Sheer surprise for the tennis fans at the Arenes de Metz, in Metz, France, as the world number 45, Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany crashed out in the second round of the Moselle Open, losing to the 148th ranked Dutch qualifier,
Igor Sijsling, on Thursday night.
The seventh seeded German dropped to a 25-23 winning record in the running season after crumbling in the contest against 24-year-old Sijsling. The Dutch wrapped up an emphatic straight sets victory 6-4, 7-5, over the seventh seed
to reach the quarter-final round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event.
Sijsling failed to win a single tour-level match throughout the current season prior to coming at Metz but beat all the odds to book a place in his first ATP World Tour quarter-final on Thursday. The Dutch displayed his brilliant
hard-court skills to dominate over Kohlschreiber throughout the contest, eventually coming out as the winner in the end.
The Dutch qualifier belted 62 per cent of his serve on target, firing 10 cracking aces and coughing three double faults. Sijsling dropped merely four points on his powerful serve, reeling off 35 out of 39 first serve points en
route to victory, while the seventh German secured only 23 points to end his voyage at Metz.
Kohlschreiber utterly failed to crack in a serve break in the entire matchup, squandering the vital break opportunity in the second set to finish the contest on the losing side in the end. He suffered two crushing serve breaks
from Sijsling in the contest before he finally succumbed in the second set.
Both men were off to a steady start in the set number one, with no serve breaks witnessed in the opening nine games. Sijsling finally nailed his first break point conversion in the 10th game, sealing the opener at 6-4 to get one
up in the contest.
The following set was a complete replication of the first one, with the two contestants holding their serve in the first 11 games before Sijsling cracked in a timely serve break to wrap up victory at 7-5.
Sijsling will take on the fourth seed, Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, in the next round clash for a place in the semis. The Croat stood victorious against the local qualifier, Nicolas Renavand, in the straight sets 7-5, 7-5, in the
second round to reach the quarter-finals of the Moselle Open on Tuesday.
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