Janko Tipsarevic sees off Igor Kunitsyn to reach round two – Dubai Championships 2012
Arch rivals, Janko Tipsarevic and Igor Kunitsyn, locked horns in the opening round of the Dubai Duty Free Championships on Tuesday. This time it was the Serb tennis ace who powered down the Russian veteran in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 in just 67 minutes.
Previously, these players had faced-off five times in their professional careers and the seventh seed Serb led the head-to-head scores with 3-2; now he enhanced the score line to 4-2. The first encounter between the two contestants was played ten years ago in 2002, during Bukhara Challenger and here they faced-off again in Dubai in 2012.
The Serb started the proceedings with a breakthrough to his name and followed it up with a comprehensive serve hold to stamp his authority. Scores kept ticking over and players were holding their serves with no pressure at all. The pressure of initial dropped breakpoint was increasing on the Russian who failed to deliver in the pressure situation and lost another serve game that almost rounded off the opening set triumph for the seventh seed Serb. Tipsarevic just had to hold his serve and he did that in style, smashing a couple of aces to end the set on a high note.
No difference was witnessed in the following set; Tipsarevic knocked down his opponent in the opening game to bag the third breakpoint of the match. It was almost like a replication of the opening set, with Kunitsyn losing another serve in the seventh game, just like the opening set, to trail 2-5. The Serb thumped another couple of aces to win the second set and progress to the second round of the tournament.
Janko Tipsarevic will go head-to-head with the Italian contestant, Flavio Cipolla, who ousted the Croatian Ivan Ljubicic in a tipsy turvy two-setter.
Four time champion, Roger Federer, eased past the French opponent, Michael Llodra, in straight sets to begin his second title hunt of the season. On his triumph, he stated, “It's always great to start off a tournament winning the first set 6-0. After that, I really had to sort of make sure I controlled Michael as much as I could because I know he's a dangerous player. I think I was solid. I could have served maybe a touch better. But still, I was never really in a whole lot of problems. Tie-breakers, as we saw, can go quickly either way, especially on a quick court like tonight. I hope I back it up day for day now.”
Federer faces the Spanish professional, Feliciano Lopez, in the next round.
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