Ivo Minar beats Peter Luczak to win ATP Morocco Tennis Tour 2011 title
26-year-old Czech Ivo Minar defeated the unseeded Australian Peter Luczak in the final of the Morocco Tennis Tour at Rabat on Sunday night.
Minar took 1 hour and 23 minutes to win his first ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour title in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3.
The Czech had defeated Luczak in a Challenger Tour event way back in 2004 at Weiden, Germany, and extended his head-to-head record against the Aussie to 2-0 after his victory at Rabat. Minar had a stiff opening set of the contest but built up his pace in
the second set to come out of the contest as the winner.
Although Luczak had a better first serve percentage of 66 in the match, he failed to bag points on timely occasions. The Australian coughed two double faults at crucial moments of the game and missed out on some of the easiest opportunities. He frittered
away some juicy net points by hitting the ball way off its targets and mistimed plenty of his strokes which ended long and wide of the court.
The Czech’s aggressive approach towards the game proved to be the differentiating factor in his victory, executing many powerful winners toward the deep corners of the court. Minar played his shots with great accuracy and orchestrated most of the rallies
in the contest. He was very agile to respond to the occasional drop shots from his opponent and converting them into elegant cross-court winners.
Minar had a good start to the competition, serving with 65 per cent accuracy and collecting 24 out of 37 total serve points in the opener. He cracked an early serve break to lead the first set by 4-3 but the Aussie opponent retaliated with a break point
to level the scores at 4-4. Minar converted his fifth break chance of the set and broke back into the lead at 6-5, serving for the set. He closed the opener at 7-5 to have the upper hand in the contest with a 1-0 lead.
The first serve percentage dropped to 56 for Minar in the second set but the Czech won 12 out of 15 points on it. His opponent served well to belt four aces and winning 79 per cent of first serve points but coughed two double faults on critical moments of
the game to drop on his back foot. Minar was leading the second set 4-3 when he stung a serve break to Luczak’s serve and get to a commanding position in the match.
A couple of winners from the Czech’s racket marked an end to Luczak’s voyage at the Morocco Tennis Tour. Minar finished off the second set at 6-3 to wrap up a Challenger Tour title victory for him.
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