Jurgen Zopp edges past Alexander Kudryavtsev in first round melee – Slovak Open 2011
Jurgen Zopp, Estonian world No.150, outplayed his opening round challenger of Slovak Open 2011, Alexander Kudryavtsev, ranked world No.147, defeating his with a spectacular third set comeback to win 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in an hour and
17 minutes indoor blue court match on Tuesday, 15th of November 2011.
Flaring up the match, Zopp won the toss and took his side to serving the match opener rolling down the scoreboard for the first time, 1-0. Following next, Kudryavtsev served his opening serve storming down the second game of the
set and evened up the scores, 1-1.
Carrying on next, the two pulled through games of respective serves and levelled up again at 2-2 and then on 3-3. Serving for game seven, Zopp bagged his fourth win of the set, 4-3, and broke the higher ranked 26-year-old in game
eight to lead the set 5-3.
With one more game left to finish the set, Zopp concluded with a service winner, 6-3, winning the opening set, and moved on to the second.
Kudryavtsev, however, served the starter of the second set and came up strong. Serving out the first game with a triple game point winner, Russian rolled down his side of the scoreboard first, 1-0, followed up by the 23-year-old
levelling up, 1-1.
Estonian continued with his second service game, winning and switching the serve back to the Russian, 2-1. World No.150, Zopp, served next, however, was pulled back down as his rival broke him adding another winner to his side
of the scoreboard, 3-1.
Kudryavtsev extended his lead in game five, 4-1, and was now left with just two more games to level up the match scores. Serving out two out of the last three games, Russian bounced back in the game winning the second set, 6-3,
and levelled up the match scores, 1-1.
With the decider on its way now, Estonian world No.150 took out the opening game of set three and switched the serve. Zopp struck again as he broke his rival, adding a winner to his score and serving out game three winning three
consecutive games, 3-0.
Russian finally got a break as he served out game four, second service game, cutting down the lead to 3-1. However, Kudryavtsev was unable to break back to lessen the lead any further. Estonian, in full momentum, served out game
five, 4-1, broke the higher ranked in game six, 5-1, and finished off the set with a marvellous double game point winner, 6-1, winning the match with a spectacular comeback.
Making his way to the second stage of the ATP Challenger tour, Estonia now will now play for the quarter-final spot against fourth seeded Lukas Rosol.
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