Joao Souza battles past Jerzy Janowicz to advance into second round – Bet-At-Home Cup 2011
In an all qualifier match, Brazilian Joao Souza rallied past Pole Jerzy Janowicz in a three set thriller at the Bet-At-Home Cup 2011, a clay court tournament held at the Tennis Stadium Kitzbuhel in Kitzbuhel, Austria. He earned
a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(3) victory over the 20-year-old Pole to secure a second round spot on Tuesday.
Struggling through the qualifying rounds, both stars displayed tremendous effort to advance in this event. However, the world number 110, Brazilian edged over Janowicz, ranked thirty-two places below him, after dominating in the
third set tie-breaker and booked a second round spot on their first face-to-face.
The Rio de Janeiro resident, Souza pulled out a quick victory through his amazing agility in the opening set. He maintained consistency in his game to level the scores at 3-3. After this, he broke the youngster’s serve to take
the lead for the first time. The Brazilian later carried his winning ways and broke Janowicz serve again in the ninth game to seal the set by winning six games to three. He faced zero breakpoint and converted two out of five breakpoint chances to his advantage.
The Pole got back on track in the second set as he fended off all three breakpoints faced to keep his entire serves. He then converted one out of two breakpoint opportunities to his advantage in the seventh game to clinch the equaliser
with a 6-4 win.
Souza raised the bar of his game in the final set again. He founded three breakpoint opportunities but squandered them. However, the Brazilian faced zero breakpoint and the set went to a tie-breaker. Souza prevailed in it and eventually
bagged the decider with a 7-6(3) score line.
Overall, the higher ranked Brazilian produced a slightly lower first serve share of 66 percent as compared to Pole’s 68 percent but registered a brilliant 81 percent win on it.
Souza hasn’t had much progress in ATP World Tour events this season. However, he displayed amazing skills at ATP Challenger tour events and clinched the title at Santos. He then made a final berth at Zagreb and reached semi-finals
at Guadalajara Challenger.
Up next for the Brazilian is the third seeded Croat Ivan Ljubicic. The Croat received a bye into the second round after being a top four player of the tournament.
Antonio Veic, a qualifier as well, will be joining Souza in the second round. He required a third set to overpower a local star, Andreas Haider-Maurer. The Croat converted seven out of fifteen breakpoint chances to his advantage
to clinch the match with a 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-2 score line.
Tags: