Lukas Rosol, Julien Benneteau move into the second round – St. Petersburg Open 2011
Unseeded in the tournament, Lukas Rosol of Czech Republic registered a surprise victory over the world number 51, Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, in the opening round of the St. Petersburg Open on Tuesday evening.
The 78th ranked Czech competitor took one hour and twenty five minutes of play to wrap up the contest in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, to book a berth in the second round of the APT (Association of Tennis Professionals) World
Tour 250 event.
Rosol faced limited resistance from his Latvian opponent in the contest and cruised through both sets with ease to register his 6th World Tour-level victory in the running season. The 26-year-old reeled off 22 out of
32 first serve points in the matchup and nailed two out of eight serve breaks en route to victory. Gulbis utterly failed to register a single break point in the entire matchup, squandering away one precious opportunity in the second set to finish on the losing
side in the end.
The contest was played on the indoor hard courts of the Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex in Saint Petersburg, in Russia. Rosol struck one serve break in each set to drive Gulbis out of the competition in his very first match.
He will meet the unseeded Frenchman, Adrian Mannarino, in the second round to play for a quarter-final berth. Mannarino made a huge upset in the opening round when he outplayed the top seed fellow compatriot, Gilles Simon, in the opening round to dispose him
of the competition.
World number 55, Julien Benneteau of France, also qualified for the second round after defeating the 76th ranked Pere Riba of Spain in the opening round clash on Tuesday. The unseeded Frenchman took merely 56 minutes
to blow away Riba in straight set, 6-,2 6-1. To earn a place in the second round of the St. Petersburg Open.
Benneteau’s phenomenal serve proved to be his critical success factor in the matchup, as he banged in 72 per cent of his serve on target to secure 28 out of 31 first serve points. He nailed four breaks of serve in the matchup and
denied Riba three out of three times to register a break point.
Benneteau improved his winning record 20-19 with his Tuesday’s victory and booked battle with the fifth seeded Russian, Mikhail Youzhny, in the second round. Youzhny ousted Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine in the first round to meet
Benneteau in the round of 16.
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