Janko Tipsarevic bags a close win over Igor Kunitsyn in round 2 – Kremlin Cup 2011
Top seed, Serbian world No.14, Janko Tipsarevic, played a superb comeback against his 2nd round competitor of Kremlin Cup 2011, Russian, Igor Kunitsyn, beating him down 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-0, in an hour and 55 minutes indoor
circuit match on Thursday, 20th October.
Playing at the Olympic Stadium, Moscow, Russian, the two clashed out for a fifth head-to-head fixture. With the two equalling up before this match, Tipsarevic added his third to the numbers and led the rivalry 3-2. Nevertheless,
winning the toss, Kunitsyn opened up the match serving game 1.
Serving out game 1, Kunitsyn rolled down the scoreboard with a triple game point win, 1-0. Hitting back with the equalizer, Serbian levelled up, 1-1, winning game 2 and switched back the serve. World No.60 followed up extending
his lead carrying away game 3, 2-1, and breaking his competitor in game 4, 3-1, to lead the set.
However, unable to hold on long enough, Kunitsyn broke down as Tipsarevic hammered and broke back to cut the lead to 2-3, and serving out game 6 to level up the scores, 3-3, once again.
Unable to break each other next, the two rivals levelled up at 4-4, 5-5 and ended up in a tiebreaker. Serving first, the Russian pulled away with the first two points, however, Tipsarevic levelled up. Equalling up at 2-2, 3-3,
4-4 and on 5-5, Kunitsyn broke the chain as he served out the last two points winning the tiebreaker 7-5, and the set, 7-6(5).
Down in the first game, the top seed served first for set 2 and ignited the start. Serving out game one, Tipsarevic broke the Russian in game 2, served out game 3 and led the match, 3-0, in no time. Cutting down the lead with his
first win, 3-1, Kunitsyn, however, could not break back to level up.
The Serbian went marvellous as he served out game 5 and broke his competitor in game 6, 5-1, and was left with just one more win. Serving out a double game point winner, Tipsarevic pulled off the set, 6-1, levelling up the match
scores, 1-1.
Hoping to somehow pull off with a winner, Kunitsyn served first for the decider set, however, was brought down by the neck. Tipsarevic broke the Russian counterpart 3 times in the decider and served out 3 more to win the set with
a bagel and the match with a super comeback, 2-1, walking off to the quarter-final round of the ATP World Tour 250 event.
Through into the quarter-final round, Tipsarevic is still playing a very unpredictable game. If he continues to play this way, his next round rival, Dmitry Tursunov, seeded sixth, would not have much of a problem ousting the top
seed.
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