Karol Beck struggles to defeat Konstantin Kravchuk in first round – Open Castilla y Leon 2011 CH
In the exciting first round contest of Open Castilla y Leon, the third seeded Slovakian competitor, Karol Beck, took down the unseeded Russian, Konstantin Kravchuk, on Tuesday afternoon to advance further in the tournament.
The three-set thriller took two hours and thirty minutes to conclude, with the Slovak coming out as the winner after settling the final scores at 4-6, 7-5, 7-5. Beck dropped the opening set early in the game but made a tremendous
recovery later on to race away to victory with great command, earning a place in the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour tournament.
Kravchuk had a phenomenal serve accuracy in the matchup and banged in 11 thudding aces, with just one double fault, as compared to Beck’s six aces and four double faults. The Russian had 11 break opportunities in the matchup but
he converted just three out of them to finish the game on the losing side. The Slovak winner nailed four out of seven break points in the matchup en route to victory and was very good with his rock solid baseline defence to repel the attacking moves from his
opponent.
The third seeded Slovak was off to a sluggish start in the opening set and dropped serve in the fifth game to Kravchuk. Beck replied immediately with a serve break but was broken again in the very next game to fall back at 3-5.
Kravchuk continued with his aggressive approach in the game and took his lead to bag the opening set at 6-4, getting one up in the competition.
The following set witnessed cautious tennis from the two players, trying to avoid extra risky moves and playing from the baseline most of the time. The scores reached 5-5 and it appeared as if a tie breaker round will be enforced
into play but a vital serve break from the third seeded Slovak turned the game in his favour, giving him the second set at 7-5.
After a trade of serve breaks from both sides, the scores went on to 5-5 in the final set. Once again Beck rose to the occasion and nailed in a crucial break point to conclude victory at 7-5, booking a place in the second round
of the tournament. He will take on either Pablo Carreno-Busta or Ivan Navarro in the next round to fight for a place in the quarter-finals.
Tags: