Jurgen Zopp gusts away Josselin Ouanna to reach the main draw – French Open 2012
Rated at number 103, Estonia’s Jurgen Zopp, got a berth in the main rounds of the second grand Slam tournament of the running season, the French Open, after dumping the French contender, Josselin Ouanna, on Saturday. The 24-year-old
Estonian wrapped up his victory in straight sets, 7-6(4), 6-4, in the qualifying competition at Roland Garros to enter the main draw of the mega event for the first time.
It was a fairly poised contest throughout, with both contenders fighting desperately to reach the coveted draw of the star-studded event in Paris, France. Ouanna posted some serious resistance in the early parts of the contest
but gradually lost his steam in the later parts to let his opponent through to victory. He has been flawless in the initial qualifying rounds of the tournament but Zopp proved to be better than him in all segments of the game, driving him out of the event
in style.
Ouanna’s error-ridden game-play proved too taxing in the end, as coughed 27 unforced errors in total, including five crucial double faults. He had eight break opportunities in the entire matchup, frittering away six and converting
merely two of them to finish on the losing side in the end. However, the Frenchman belting 33 winners in reply to his opponent’s 30, yet falling short of him in all other segments of the game.
Zopp edged past his French opponent with three out of six break points en route to victory. He won 37 out of 53 first serve points in the contest and was phenomenal with his return game to come out as the winner.
The French managed to drag the opening set in the tie-breaker round but couldn’t deliver the final blow. He could barely secured four points in the decider and fell 0-1 early. Ouanna lifted his game in the following set and came
up with two break points but was outdone by three cracking ones from Zopp. The Estonian struck 12 winners to conclude victory at 6-2.
Up next for Zopp in the main draw is the other 17th seed French home favourite, Richard Gasquet, in the opening round.
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