Lu and Tipsarevic defeat Mannarino and Serra at SA Tennis Open
Yen-Hsun Lu of the Chinese Taipei and Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia defeated Adrian Mannarino and Florent Serra, of France, in a first round doubles match up in Johannesburg.
Lu and Tipsarevic, 2nd and 3rd seed in the singles respectively, were completely dominant as they took the French pairing apart with ease. A final score line of 6-3 and 6-0 seems almost too easy, and indeed it was so for the top-seeded
pair.
Lu is currently 110 in the world in doubles, and Tipsarevic is 74. Their relative inexperience in the doubles game did not hamper them much during this match though. They dismantled their opponents with a much superior game, and were thus rightly winners.
The first set was a show of class by the Chinese and Serbian pair, where they landed in a healthy 68 per cent of their first serves. They also won a good number of their points off their first serve.
Their opponents were better in regards to first serve points, as they won 88 per cent of the points of their first serve.
Unfortunately, they managed to land in only 40 per cent of the serves. The French pairing lost comprehensively. The victors conceded no break points and broke twice out of 5 opportunities to grab the set 6-3.
The 2nd set was an even better display, as the ruthless pair romped to a 6-0 victory. The top pair landed in 86 per cent of their serves and won an astounding 92 per cent points on serve. Their return game was also immaculate, as they gathered
12 points off their opponents’ serve. These points included 6 break points, out of which 3 were availed.
As only the third iteration of the SA Tennis Open after a 23 year long hiatus, this year’s field has a few big names. Tipsarevic and Lu are both ranked above 50 in the global singles rankings, however, and pose a serious threat to the title. One can hope
to see fine tennis from both of them in the future, and maybe we shall see them walk off with the doubles title as well.
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