Kunitsyn/Russell rally past Berrer/Lu into the quarterfinals – Atlanta Tennis Championships 2011
Igor Kunitsyn of Russia and Michael Russell of USA fought back after losing the first set to defeat German/Taiwanese pair of Michael Berrer and Yen-Hsun Lu in three sets 6-7(7), 6-4, 10-5 in the first round at the Atlanta Tennis
Championships on Tuesday. The match lasted for an hour and 40 minutes.
Berrer/Lu and the Russian/American team failed to break each other in the first set and equalised the score at 6-6 to take the set to a tie-break. The German/Taiwanese combination overcame stiff competition from their opponents
and clinched a late mini-break, winning the tie-break 9-7.
Berrer and Lu delivered 66 percent of the first serves and three aces in the opening set. The German/Taiwanese duo clinched 88 percent of the first service points and 69 percent of the second service points in the first set. The
unseeded pair failed to impress with their returns as they won just six of the 23 first return points. However, their opponents returned worse, claiming just three of the 25 first return points in the opening set.
After losing the first set with closest of margins, Kunitsyn and Russell made a good start in the second set as they broke the German/Taiwanese pair in the fifth game and held their serve in the next game to build a 4-2 lead. The
Russian/American duo did not allow their opponents to break back, winning the set 6-4.
Kunitsyn and Russell kept their first serve percentage at 56 percent and delivered a single ace in the second set. The Russian/American team did well in all aspects of the game as they grabbed 74 percent of the total service points
and 40 percent of the total return points in the second set. They saved the only break point they faced and capitalised on one of the three break point opportunities they created on Berrer and Lu’s serve in the second set.
Carrying the winning momentum into the match tie-break, Kunitsyn and Russell claimed two early mini-breaks to grab a 5-2 lead. The Russian/American combination bagged one more mini-break later to win the match tie-break 10-5.
Kunitsyn and Russell served quite well in the match tie-break, capturing six of the seven first service points and two of the three first return points. The American/Russian pair kept their first serve percentage at 88 percent
in the match tie-break.
The unseeded pair will either meet fourth seeds Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins of Great Britain or Bulgarian/American combination of Grigor Dimitrov and Ryan Sweeting in the quarterfinals.
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