Janko Tipsarevic topples Grega Zemlja in the third round – US Open 2012
Eighth seed, Janko Tipsarevic of Serbian, put away some early trouble to beat the world number 99 from Slovenia, Grega Zemlja, in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 in the round of 32 at the US Open in New York on Sunday.
The Serbian needed two hours and 16 minutes to throw his rival out of the competition.
Zemlja was first to move ahead, as he hit a blow to Tipsarevic in the opening game of the match and won his following serve to build a 2-0 lead. The Slovenian sustained his lead till 4-2 but before it was too late, the Serbian
star raised the level of his shots and grabbed four games in a row to triumph 6-4.
Tipsarevic banged in a couple of aces and made the same number of double faults in the first set, keeping his first serve percentage at 70 and converting 13 of the 19 of them into points. The Serbian number two hit 10 winners and
committed equal number of unforced errors.
In the second set, Tipsarevic and Zemlja made a steady start, as they did not lose their serve in the first seven games to take the score to 4-3 in favour of the former. The Serbian player nailed a breakthrough at that moment and
made the most of that to claim it 6-3.
Tipsarevic fired five aces in the second set but his double faults also increased to four. The 28-year-old played flawlessly at the net, winning all the four volley points. The Belgrade, Serbia resident put away the only break
threat he came across and availed one of the three chances he created.
The two players went neck to neck in the first half of the third set, taking the score to 3-3. Tipsarevic stuck in the seventh and consolidated on it to attain a 5-3 advantage. However, the Serbian failed to close out the match
in the 10th game and evened out the proceedings at 5-5. Instead of getting flared, Tipsarevic broke Zemlja again in the following one and this time he succeeded in closing it 7-5.
Tipsarevic’s serve statistics were best in the third set, as he bombarded seven aces and committed just a couple of double faults, winning 22 of the 27 points on the first deliveries.
The Serbian is drawn to meet Germany’s 19th seeded contender, Philipp Kohlschreiber, in the fourth round.
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