Josselin Ouanna pins Maxime Teixeira to take the crown – Challenger La Manche 2012 CH
A stunning result was witnessed in the final of the Challenger La Manche on Sunday, when the 279th ranked local competitor, Josselin Ouanna, outplayed the world number 154, Maxime Teixeira, to earn the championship crown.
The unseeded Frenchman lived up to the expectations of his home crowd and dumped the superior-rated fellow compatriot in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, to be declared as the dominating winner.
The contest was played on the hard courts of Cherbourg, France, with a huge local crowd turning out to witness the all-French affair. Both contestants registered huge upsets in the tournament to earn a place in the grand finale
but only the deserving and hard-hitting Ouanna came out as victorious in the end. It was the third ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour title victory for the 25-year-old Frenchman and the first one of the 2012 season. He has featured three
Challenger finals in his career and amazingly won all of them to depict his tremendous skills.
Ouanna didn’t drop a single set en route to the semi-finals of the tournament but went through some real rough ride against the second seed Dutch competitor, Thomas Schoorel. He stunned the superior-ranked Dutch opponent in a stiff
three-setter and then went on to dump Teixeira comprehensively in the final to clinch the championship title in style.
Teixeira came under the lime light when he outmuscled the sixth seed Igor Sijsling in the second round draw, although it was a retirement victory in the third set but it proved enough to boost up his confidence to clear the following
rounds of the tournament.
Ouanna banged in 66 per cent of his first serve on target and clinched 25 out of 33 points on it to take the better of his opponent. He smoked eight aces to his opponent’s court to secure some un-fought points and converted four
out of nine break opportunities en route to victory. Teixeira, on the other hand, could merely register one break point in the entire matchup to finish on the losing side in the end.
A decent start to the first set witnessed the two men holding their serves in the opening five games. Ouanna drew the first blood in the sixth game to lead 4-2 and held his lead until the conclusion of the opening set at 6-3.
A trade of break points in the fourth and fifth games of the following set took the scores to 3-2 in the favour of the 25-year-old French. He stung another vital break point in the seventh game to root out Teixeira from the competition
at 6-2, winning the Challenger La Manche in a convincing manner.
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