Jarkko Nieminen labours past Maxime Teixeira to reach the second round draw – Sud de France 2012
World number 50, Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, had to go through some tough channels before he took down the local qualifier, Maxime Teixeira, in the opening round of the Open Sud de France on Tuesday afternoon. The eighth seed Finn
contestant registered his seventh victory of the current season in three sets, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, to move into the round of 16 of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250-level tournament.
The 163rd ranked Frenchman displayed his amazing skills in the qualifying rounds of the tournament but failed to deliver his best in the Tuesday’s encounter against Nieminen. Teixeira hung in the matchup for more than
two hours but finished on the losing side in the end, ending his voyage at the competitive event in Montpellier, France.
It was the first time these two men went one-on-one against each other and Nieminen took limited in getting the knowhow of his inferior ranked opponent. The Finn contender raced through the opening set with the utmost ease to get
one up early in the match but lost his ways in the middle parts of the contest to let the French back in the game. Teixeira made an impactful comeback in the following set to draw the match on even terms. It was his lack of experience in the contest against
the 30-year-old veteran which led him down in final set.
There wasn’t any large difference between the overall match statistics of the two players. The only vital difference was made by the Finn’s two cracking break point conversions which sealed victory for him in the end. Nieminen
crafted a total of 13 break opportunities in the match but only two conversions proved sufficient for him to dispose of the French qualifier.
A steady start was seen in the opening set with both men holing their serves in the first five games. Nieminen finally cashed in his 10thbreak chance of the set to draw the first blood in the sixth game and went in a
4-2 lead. The eighth seed had no further difficulties in closing out the first set at 6-3 but a strong comeback from Teixeira was seen in the next set; he broke the Finn’s serve in the sixth game to lead 4-2 and pocketed the set in the similar fashion at 6-3.
No break points were witnessed in the opening nine games of the decisive set but Nieminen finally got an opening in the 10th game and went on to conclude the matchup at 6-4.
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