Jeremy Chardy upsets Potito Starace in opening round – Kremlin Cup 2011
Jeremy Chardy, French world No.133, disrupted higher ranked competitor in the opening round of Kremlin Cup 2011, Potito Starace, Italian world No.54, 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-6(2) in a long just above two hour blue hard indoor circuit match
at the Olympic Stadium, Moscow, Russian on Tuesday, 18th October.
With the two making their way on the blue circuit, the Frenchman won the toss and served for the match opener. Rolling down the scoreboard, 1-0, Chardy stood to return. Levelling up instantly, Starace kept on Frenchman’s tail and
took out game 2, 1-1.
With the two winning a game next, levelled up at 2-2 and then on 3-3 before the French struck. Serving out game 7, world No.133, Chardy, went on breaking the world No. 54 and led the set, 5-3. With just one more win left to bag
the set, Chardy served out game 9 winning the set 6-3 to lead the match, 1-0.
Down in the first set, the Italian made a comeback win a close 2nd set. Serving out the first game of the set, world No.54 scored first, 1-0, however was followed up by the Frenchman levelling up next, 1-1. With the
two winning game on respective serves, levelled up at, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4 and on 5-5.
Unable to break each other, the two tied up in a tiebreaker. At first, Chardy had the lead and was hoping to finish up the match early, however, the Italian stallion pulled off significantly snatching away the tiebreaker, 7-5,
to win the set, 7-6(5) and levelled up the match scores, 1-1.
Equalled up once again, the two went on to play the decider set with the lower ranked Frenchman opening first. Serving out a triple game point winner, Chardy stood to return, however, was followed up by the Italian levelling up
the set score, 1-1.
Equally match defences led the two players to win games on their own serves and were unable to break each other again. With the scores hiking up, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4 and then 5-5, the two tied up again and stood out to play the decider
tiebreaker next.
Serving first for the tiebreaker, Chardy took the lead and the first 2 points. Incapable of breaking the French defence, Starace kept losing points and eventually lost the tiebreaker, 7-2, the set, 7-6(2) and the match, 2-1.
With an amazing victory over the higher ranked Italian, Chardy now moves on to play against the third seeded Russian, Alexandr Dolgopolov, in the second stage of the Kremlin Cup 2011, An ATP World Tour 250 event.
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