Lukas Lacko crashes out; Grega Zemlja advances in the qualifiers – Qatar Open 2012
Third seed Lukas Lacko of Slovakia was stunned by a brilliant performance from the unseeded Dutch competitor, Igor Sijsling, in the second round qualifiers of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open on Sunday. Being played at the Khalifa International
Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha, Qatar, the contest witnessed Sijsling taking down the third seed in straight sets, 7-5, 7-5, in one hour and thirty minutes.
It was a close contest, with both men labouring extremely hard to take the better of one another but Sijsling proved to be the superior player in the end. The Dutch competitor outplayed his opponent in every segment of the game
and gave him limited opportunities to get on top of the game. He secured 38 out of 50 first serve points and registered three out of eight serve breaks en route to victory.
24-year-old Lacko had an excellent start to the tournament and won his opening round qualifier against Mischa Zverev in straight sets but failed to repeat the similar sort of performance on Sunday. The Slovak registered his only
serve break of the match in the fifth game of the opening set and then it was the Dutch competitor who stung two successive breaks of serve to claim the opening set at 7-5.
A more competitive second set was witnessed, with both players holding their serves in the opening 11 games. It appeared as if a tie-breaker round was about to come into play but a timely serve break in the 12th game
from Sijsling wrapped up victory for him in style.
The unseeded Dutch will compete against Spain’s Roberto Bautista-Agut, who surprised the eighth seed German, Bjorn Phau, in the second round to book a place in the qualifying competition.
Fourth seeded Slovenian, Grega Zemlja, also breezed past his German opponent, Dominik Meffert, in the second round of the qualifying draws on Sunday. He took 82 minutes to register a straight sets triumph over the German, settling
the final scores at 6-3, 7-5, to inch closer to the main draws of the Qatar Open.
Despite of coughing six double faults in the match, Zemlja reeled off 32 out of 44 first serve points to get the better of his opponent. He crafted 11 break chances in the contest and just four conversions proved sufficient for
him to dispose of Meffert in straight sets. Zemlja will take on Jesse Huta Galung of Netherlands in his next encounter to battle for a place in the main rounds of the ATP World Tour 250 event.
Tags: