Lukas Rosol makes short work of Ivo Minar in maiden match - San Marino CEPU Open 2011 CH
In one of the more exciting opening round fixtures on display at Centro Tennis Cassa di Risparmio di Fonte dell'Ovo, San Marino second seed Lukas Rosol proved true to his ranking and effectively doused Ivo Minar in an almost effortless
two set win. The Czech compatriots fought feverishly till the match’s end after a little over an hour and twenty minutes of action, with Rosol faltering a little in the first set but quickly regaining momentum to bag a confident win 7-5, 6-3. Rosol now leads
their head to head rankings 1-0.
The 69th ranked Rosol’s career is flying high, he recently reached his career best No. 66 rank in July and came into the ATP Challenger event with a 4-6 win loss ranking on the ATP tour. Rosol had managed to reach the
third round of the Rolland Garros earlier this year, before bowing out to Juan Ignacio Chela. His performance on the Challenger circuit however has been much better; he has grabbed two wins, one runner up and a couple of semi-finals and quarterfinals this
year alone.
Ranked at No. 160, Minar had always been an underdog in the match right from the start. With a 0-0 win loss standing for the year, the 27 years old Czech has been limited only to the Challenger circuit. Amongst his few ATP tour
performances, the athlete hasn’t been able to score any marginal achievement as of now and his last outing was at Wimbledon, where he had failed to make it though the qualifiers.
Rosol opened the match by serving first and right from the start took on with a solid lead, he broke Minar’s game in the second game limiting him to 30 points in that game to further cement his lead. The set slowly built up with
Minar trying his best to put a restraint on the scoreboard which was quickly slipping out of his hands, surprisingly broke Rosol’s serve in the 7th game levelling the scores at 4-4. Despite serving at a lowly 46% and rounding off only 65% point
from them, Rosol persevered by again breaking his opponent in the last game. The lengthy set finally closed at 7-5, squarely in Rosol’s account.
Winning the second set proved to be a lot easier for Rosol. He served at a much improved 62% against his opponent’s 39% and registered four perfectly executed aces to render Minar hapless. Rosol broke Minar’s serve in the fourth
game to swerve clear 6-3 of his struggling opponent.
Rosol now faces German competitor Dustin Brown in the second round of the tournament at San Marino. Brown had opened his campaign here by scoring a three set win over special exempt Gregoire Burquier in their first round match
earlier.
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