Julien Benneteau downs Igor Andreev in the third round – Winston-Salem Open 2011
French qualifier Julien Benneteau, ranked 113th in the world, fought back from a deficit of one set to oust world number 79 Igor Andreev of Russia in three sets 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(5) in the round of 16 at the Winston-Salem
Open in North Carolina on Wednesday. The match lasted for two hours and 33 minutes.
Andreev made the initial breakthrough as he broke the French in the third game of the opening set and won his following service game to take a 3-1 lead. The Russian claimed second break of serve in the fifth game and consolidated
on the double break of serve to clinch the set 6-2.
The Moscow resident hit one ace and 57 percent of the first serves, converting fourteen of the seventeen of them into points in the opening set. While, Benneteau delivered one ace and 61 percent of the first serves. The French
managed to claim just ten of the nineteen first service points. The 29-year-old returned poorly as he bagged just three of the seventeen first return points compared to nine of the nineteen first return points by his opponent in the first set.
After losing the first set abysmally, Benneteau made a strong start in the second set as he broke the Russian in the second game and consolidated on it to grab a 3-0 lead. Andreev opened his account in the fourth game, holding
his serve to reduce the trail to 1-3. Benneteau did not lose any game after that as he broke the Russian again in the sixth game, winning three successive games to seal the set 6-1.
The French kept his first serve percentage at 58 percent, capturing eleven of the fifteen points on the first serve and eight of the eleven points on the second serve in the second set. The right-handed returned superbly as he
clinched eight of the fourteen first return points in the second set.
With winning momentum on his side, Benneteau took an early lead in the third set, breaking Andreev in the opening game and holding his serve in the neat game to go ahead 2-0. However, Andreev was not in a mood to go down without
a fight, breaking back in the sixth game and equalising the score at 3-3. Benneteau and the Russian held their serve in the next six games, taking the set to a tie-break. The Frenchman hit a back-hand volley winner to grab a late mini-break in the tie-break,
capturing it 7-5.
Benneteau will play ninth seed Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine in the quarterfinals.
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