Lipsky/Ram oust Benneteau/Monfils in the opening round – SAP Open 2012
Defending champions, Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram, fended off late resistance to outshine the French duo, Julien Benneteau and Gael Monfils, in straight sets at the SAP Open 2012 on Tuesday. They registered a 6-3, 7-6(6) victory against their French opponents
at this ATP World Tour 250 series event taking place in San Jose, United States.
The second seeded tandem showed amazing co-ordination at the HP Pavilion and took down the combination of Benneteau and Monfils in an hour and 13-minutes long duel.
Lipsky and Ram stayed on course to defend their title after making quick in-roads in the opening set. They drew the first blood in the second game and subsequently took a 3-0 lead. Later, the higher ranked team maintained consistency in their game and slid
in remaining serves to win the opening set with a 6-3 score line.
The local seeded duo lost their track in the following set and after suffering the first blow in the sixth game, they went 5-2 down. However, the American junction refocused after this and snatched their break back in the ninth game, eventually dragging
the set to a tie-breaker. Lipsky and Ram dominated in it and ultimately clicked the set with a 7-6(6) success.
All in all, the second seeds proved their class at this hard court tournament. The Americans failed to dust away the only breakpoint they came across but cashed in two out of eight break chances to edge past the French pair.
Next up for the seeded collaboration of Lipsky and Ram are the local wild card entrants, Sam Querrey and Jack Sock. The wild cards rallied past the Austrian-German pair of Julian Knowle and Michael Kohlmann in three sets mouth-watering match to set-up this
clash.
Earlier, the unseeded team of South Africa’s Kevin Anderson and German’s Frank Moser earned the spotlight after trashing the Czech-Slovak junction of Lukas Dlouhy and Igor Zelenay in straight sets. They hammered nine aces and cashed in all four break opportunities
to seal the deal with a 6-2, 6-3 victory in just under an hour.
The South African-German tandem will next confront the third seeds, Paul Hanley and Jamie Murray, who eased past their opponents, Philipp Marx and Adil Shamasdin, to secure this place.
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