Juan Carlos Ferrero destroys Igor Kunitsyn in first round melee – Valencia Open 2011
Juan Carlos Ferrero, Spanish former world No.1, ousted his opening round challenger of Valencia Open 2011, Russian world No.63, Igor Kunitsyn in a hard hitting two set hard circuit match on Tuesday, 1stNovember at Ciutat
de les Arts i les Ciències, Valencia, Spain, ending in favour of the Spaniard, 6-4, 7-6(2) in an hour and 38 minutes.
However, flaring up the opening round match, Kunitsyn stood to serve the match starter, serving out the game and rolling down the scoreboard first, 1-0. Former world No.1, Ferrero, served his opening serve, however, broke down
early as Kunitsyn overpowered the Spaniard in game two and led the board, 2-0.
Serving out his third consecutive win of the set, the Russian world No.63 pulled off game three as well to lead the score card, 3 games to zero. Ferrero, however, made a magnificent comeback as he rushed pass his first win of the
set, game four, 1-3, and broke the lower ranked Russian in the fifth to cut the lead to 2-3.
With his momentum gaining up, the former world No.1 ended the lead as he levelled up the scores serving out the sixth game, 3-3. Finally, after losing three straight games, Kunitsyn bagged his fourth win of the set to 4-3, however,
that was the last he won in the set.
Ferrero, on the other hand, served out game eight to level up the scores and broke the veteran counterpart in game nine, 5-4, and stood to serve again next. Left with one more win, Ferrero pulled off game ten with a double set
point winner, 6-4, and went a set up to lead the match.
Struggling to make up his mark, Kunitsyn carried on with the second set as he served for the opener again and washed out the set starter, 1-0. Ferrero covered up the lead right away serving out game two, 1-1, and switching back
the serve.
Kunitsyn, this time, has a better technique to counter the Spaniards returners. Levelling up at 2-2, 3-3, 4-4 and then on 5-5 the two eventually tied up the match in a decider tiebreaker with Ferrero to serve first.
Knocking out the first two points, Ferrero took the lead commanding the tiebreaker. Capturing not more than 2 point in the tiebreaker, Kunitsyn broke down and lost the set, 7-6(2), and the match in straight sets.
Through to the second stage of the ATP World Tour 500 event, the former world No.1 will now play against the winner of the match between Feliciano Lopez and Alex Bogomolov, to fight out for the quarter-final spot of Valencia Open
2011.
Tags: