Konstantin Kravchuk defeats Denis Matsukevich in quarterfinal – Tashkent Challenger 2011
Russian tennis pro Konstantin Kravchuk battled past Denis Matsukevich 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1) on Thursday to book his place in semi-final of 2011 TASHKENT Challengers here in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Although both sets were decided on a tie-breaker, Kravchuk looked in control as he played the big points exceptionally well.
The Russian will be hoping to continue his good form in the upcoming matches of Challengers tournament as well. However, he will have to improve his serve game play considerably to achieve similar sorts of results. Kravchuk managed a decent 63 per cent first serve in the match. However, his second serve let him down big time as he lost half of the points on second serves.
Matsukevich, on the other hand, was let down by his poor serving as he managed to a mere 56 per cent first serve during the contest. Making three double faults and not even a single serve ace, he did not have enough firepower to fight the onslaught by his opponent. He had more chances to break his opponent than he actually managed. Converting only two out of six break points in the match, he wasted a bit too many opportunities.
Kravchuk had a great start to the match as he looked to in complete control of his early service games. Breaking the serve in fourth game of the opening set, he raced to a 3-1 lead. Matsukevich also raised his game play and he managed to stay in the set after he forced a couple of errors from his opponent. Evening the game score 5-5, he certainly did a great job to force the set into a tie-breaker.
Kravchuk, however, completely out shadowed his opponent in the tie-breaker as he took the set score lead. A similar pattern of play was observed in the following set. After the contestant exchanged a break of serve, the set went into a tie-breaker. Kravchuk completed a deserving straight sets victory after he clinched the tie-breaker 7-1.
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