Kenny de Schepper surprises Dudi Sela in the round one – Geneva Challenger 2012 CH
Sixth seeded Dudi Sela received a straight-sets defeat at the hand of the French participant, Kenny de Schepper in the first round of the IPP Geneva Challenger 2012. He concluded the match in nearly 51 minutes at the indoor hard
courts of GreenSet GrandPrix, Switzerland.
Ranked 118th in the South African Airways ATP (Association of Tennis Professional) World Tour Rankings, Schepper, held his initial serve and despite of his senior opponent’s pressure, he drew the first blood to get into
the lead early. Both the players held their serves for the initial part of the opening set and the score line levelled down to 2-all in the fourth game. The French player gained momentum in the sixth by cashing his lone break opportunity and overpowered his
challenger by smashing powerful forehands. The right-hander Israeli was unable to fight back and seemed powerless to post any solid show and faced a surprising loss of 3-6 in the opener.
In the second set, the 27-year-old stepped on the hard courts and despite of his losing edge, he attained the first game and marked a 1-0 but the score line was squared down to 1-all in very next game. The lower ranked French professional
cashed his opponent’s serve in the third game to get into the driving seat. He nudged forward to secure his break opportunity again in the fifth game and marked a 4-1 lead. Schepper held his serve the entire time and did not give his challenger a single chance
to overshadow him, eventually terminated the match with a bread stick.
The 27-year Israeli had a better initial serve precision of 73 percent with 18 of 30 first and four of 11 second delivery points. 6ft 8in tall Schepper bombarded his challenger with 10 aces but double faulted six times. He manifested
61 percent initial serve accuracy, bagging home 26 of 27 first and seven of 17 serve points in reaction.
In the next round, the 25-year-old Frenchman will battle against the local challenger Stephane Bohli. The wild card entrant gave a straight sets defeat to the Brazilin professional, Thiago Alves.
Tags: