Lukas Lacko bounces back against Frank Dancevic to march into title match – Slovak Open 2011
Slovak Lukas Lacko defeated Canadian Frank Dancevic in the semi-final of Slovak Open contested on Hard, Premier Court in Bratislava, Slovakia. They had met each other four times before and the head-to-head score was levelled at
2-2. It was an outstanding opportunity for both players to take lead on their rival and Lacko did it with a score of 4-6, 7-5, 6-0 in just over an hour and 54 minutes.
The form was lacking in the recent past for both contenders and they have not been able to have firm footing in any tournament and were knocked-out in the early stages of the tournaments. It was the best opportunity for both contenders
to prove their worth and move into the final and enhance their chances of winning the challenger title.
Slovak had an advantage of local crowd, familiar conditions and superior ranking so apparently he was the hot favourite to win the match. Canadian started off well but couldn’t carry on his exciting first set performance further
into the remaining sets.
Canadian kicked-off proceedings with a break in the first game and took 2-0 lead by holding on to his serve in the next game. This breakpoint proved to be the crucial factor in deciding the first set as local boy couldn’t break
his rival’s serve to level the score.
With the help of 3 aces and commanding first serve success rate of 73%, Canadian sealed the first set win. The outstanding feature of Dancevic’s play was his ability to save breakpoints and he did that on 10 different situations
that shows his temperament.
Local boy started the second set in good style and broke his opponent’s serve to put pressure on him. Finally Dancevic broke his rival’s serve in the fifth game and held his own serve in the sixth to level the score at 3-3.
Score slowly and gradually moved on and both players continued to hold on to their serves and it was clear that tie-breaker would be enforced but Lacko was all fired-up in the last game of the second set as he smashed few exciting
winners. He broke the Canadian’s serve to enforce the third set.
It was a one-man show in the third set as the local boy cruised past his opponent in the final. Canadian was extremely tired and couldn’t continue gather enough stamina to hold back Lacko who was nailing him down in all aspects
of the game.
A cruising victory for Lukas Lacko in the third set confirmed his place in the finals and he will go head-to-head against Ricardas Berankis.
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