Jan Hajek rolls over Teymuraz Gabashvili into the semis – UniCredit Open 2012
Home favourite, Jan Hajek, gave a delight to his local fans, crushing Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili, ranked 145th in the world, in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 in the quarter-finals at the UniCredit Open in Czech Republic on
Thursday.
Hajek and Gabashvili held their serve in the opening two games to even out the scores at 1-1. The Czech player made the initial breakthrough in the third and consolidated on it to take a 3-1 lead. He kept the winning momentum going,
capturing three more games consecutively to seal it 6-1.
Hajek smashed one ace and the same number of double fault in the opener. The Czech contender put in 59 percent of the first serves and amazingly converted nine of the 10 of them into points. The best aspect of his game was the
aggressive second returns, as he grabbed 11 of the 14 points with their help. The 28-year-old saved both break points he faced and converted three of the six he received.
Compared to the first one, the second set was started steadily by Hajek and Gabashvili, as they held their serves in the opening five games to take the score to 3-2 in the former’s favour. The Czech player hit a blow to Gabashvili
in the sixth and held his subsequent serve to move ahead 5-2. Hajek did not allow the Russian to stage a comeback and won 6-3.
The 5ft 11in tall pounded three aces and 72 percent of the first serves, pocketing 15 of the 18 points on them. The 128th ranked also did quite well on the second deliveries and returns, as he clinched five of the seven
and five of the 11 points on them respectively. On the other hand, Gabashvili committed a couple of double faults and put in just 48 percent of the first serves. The Russian could not get any break chance of his own and failed to save one of the two he faced
in the second set.
Hajek will take on second seed, Radek Stepanek, or Italy’s Flavio Cipolla, ranked 75th in the world, in the semi-finals.
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