Jurgen Melzer trounces Ivan Dodig to reach quarters – Regions Morgan Keegan Championships 2012
Austrian number one, Jurgen Melzer, made an epic comeback from a set down to stomp over the Croatian ace, Ivan Dodig, in a three set nail-biter at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships 2012 on Thursday. He impressively penned down a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) victory
over the Bosnia and Herzegovina-born to occupy a final eight spot at this ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 500 series event.
Bidding for his fourth ATP career title, Melzer showed superb skills and agility to outclass the world number 58 in two hours and nine-minutes. After earning this success, the Austrian took the lead in the FedEx ATP Head 2 Head series by 1-0 against Dodig.
The 27-year-old Croat stormed into the Racquet Club of Memphis and drew the first blood in the opening game. He maintained his intensity and not only swiped in remaining serves but broke Melzer’s serve again in the seventh game to pull out the opener with
a 6-2 win.
Ranked 38th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Melzer turned the tables around in the second set. He dusted away both breakpoints he faced and earned the breakthrough in the fourth game, eventually clinching the equaliser with
a 6-3 score line.
Both contenders raised their level of game in the final set. Dodig was the one who took the early lead. He earned the coveted break in the fourth game and cruised to a 4-1 lead.
The left-handed Austrian re-focused at that point. He unleashed flurry of massive forehands to wipe out the proceeding three games successively. Melzer then kept remaining serves and took the set to a tie-breaker. He outclassed Dodig in it and won the decider
with a 7-6(5) win.
The fourth seed, Milos Raonic, will assist the top Austrian in the last eight. He eased past the Ukrainian tennis ace, Sergiy Stakhovsky, in straight sets in their second meeting. The Canadian is in magnificent run of form this season, having lost only a
single match. He clinched his second career title at the Aircel Chennai Open in the first week of January and successfully defended his title at the SAP Open in San Jose last week.
"I feel like I'm just getting better this week," said Raonic. "I felt last week I played really good tennis and I'm happy that this week I'm backing it up."
The 21-year-old brushed off both breakpoints he encountered and required a single break of serve in both sets to earn the limelight.
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