Jarkko Nieminen outclasses Igor Kunitsyn to reach the quarter-final round – IPP Open 2012 CH
Top seeded Finn contender, Jarkko Nieminen, had no troubles in blasting his way into the quarter-final rounds of the IPP Open after overwhelming the competitive Russian opponent, Igor Kunitsyn, on Thursday. The world number 46
took barely 64 minutes to register an assertive score line of 6-2, 6-1, in the second round clash at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Helsinki, Finland.
The home favourite top seed didn’t face any resistance from Kunitsyn at all and raced through the games with commanding ease. The 31-year-old Russian contender could secure merely three games in the entire matchup and proved easy
bait for his counterpart. Nieminen had already defeated Kunitsyn after a stiff battle last year at Washington DC, USA but his Thursday’s victory had a far better score line.
The contest took off in a steady manner, with both contestants holding their opening serves. Nieminen delivered the first blow in the fourth game, breaking his opponent and then holding his own serve in the next game to attain
a 4-1 lead. Kunitsyn could hold just one more serve before the top seed nailed another crucial break of serve in the eighth game and took the set at 6-2.
Nieminen carried on with his intense game play in the following set and broke the Russian serve right away to impose a 3-0 lead. Kunitsyn could not recover from the damage inflicted by the early onslaught and dropped his serve
once again in the sixth game to submit the match to the top seeded Finn at 1-6. Nieminen took almost 20 minutes to conclude the second set and moved into the quarter-final round of the IPP Open.
The number one seed contender had a brilliant first serve precision of 75 per cent in the match and clinched 28 out of 40 points on it. He crafted a total of 10 break opportunities but only four conversions proved sufficient for
him to dispose of the bleak Russian rival comprehensively. On the other hand, Kunitsyn couldn’t even go closer to a break point in the entire contest and miserably failed to have any sort of impact on his opponent.
Nieminen will face the fifth seed Dudi Sela in the round of eight.
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