Jurgen Zopp brings down Marsel Ilhan in opening round fixture – IPP Open 2011
World No.147, Jurgen Zopp, took out his opening round challenger of IPP Open 2011, Marsel Ilhan, world No.112, on Tuesday, 22nd of November 2011, with an amazing comeback in the third round of the hard indoor circuit fixture winning 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4, in a long two hour and 15 minutes match at Tali, Helsinki, Finland.
Ilhan, 24-year-old, took his side to serve the match opener rolling down the scoreboard with a spectacular start, a triple game point winner, 0-1. Following the Uzbek, Estonian won his first game of the match evening up the scores at 1-1.
The two rallied out game three and game four levelling up once again, 2-2. However, the tables turned after that. Zopp broke his higher ranked competitor for the first time in the match, and led 3-2. Serving out game six, 23-year-old Estonian went on smashing another winner to extend his lead to three straight games, 5-2.
Left with just one more game win to finish off the set, Zopp rushed away with a service winner, 6-2, bagging the set to lead the match for the first time.
Continuing with the fixture, Ilhan came forward as he served out the second set opener, however, the treacherous 23-year-old Estonian levelled up in no time, 1-1. Ilhan stepped up next as he served out game three of the second set to lead 2-1.
24-year-old Uzbek broke his lower ranked rival pulling him down in game four and then serving out game five to lead the set 4-1. Estonian came back in the game sooner than thought. Serving out his third service game, game six, the 23-year-old followed with a superb breakpoint win to cut the lead down to 3-4, and then served out again evening up the scores at 4-4.
Zopp’s comeback did knock out the Uzbek’s momentum. Anyhow, with the two winning two games each next, the set went straight into a tiebreaker. Serving first Ilhan took the opening point yet could not lead early. However, with the two stuck at 5-5, Ilhan broke the silence and pocketed the last two points finishing off the tiebreaker 7-5, and the set, 7-6(5), equalling the match scores at 1-1.
Boiling up the match, the decider set went underway as Ilhan once again took the first serve, serving out the first game to lead, 1-0. Zopp followed with his first win of the set levelling up, 1-1. The two levelled up again after the two bagged a game each, 2-2.
Unable to break each other, both rallied down to even up at 3-3 and then at 4-4 before the fixture concluded. Zopp, serving out game nine, broke his higher ranked rival, beating him down in the decider, 6-4, to clinch the match with a startling comeback.
Through into the second round of the ATP Challenger Tour event, Estonian will now play either Ricardas Berankis or Adrian Mannarino for the quarter-final spot.
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