Malaysian Open: Sergiy Stakhovsky prevents two, Johan/Lipsky prevent seven match-points to advance
Seventh seed Sergiy Stakhovsky prevented two match points as he went past his American tennis foe Michael Russell in two sets in the first round clash at the Malaysian Open on Monday. The final match score was 2-6, 7-6(4) and 6-3.
The Ukrainian tennis player battled back from a deficit of 2-6, 0-3, just to be broken again during the eight game of the second set. The world number 86 Michael Russel held two match points at 5-3, 40/15. However, Sergiy prevented both and won three straight
games on the trot.
There was yet another twist as Michael tied during the 12th game to force a tie-break. However, Sergiy held his nerve at 4-4 to grab the last three points to tie the clash.
The 24-year-old Sergiy then capitalized on two double faults from Michael during the eight game of the decisive set and smashed two aces as he served out win, bringing the turbulent clash to an end after a time of two hours and forty six minutes on Monday.
Andrey Golubev, an eighth seeded player made a powerful beginning to his campaign, beating his Chinese tennis foe, Yen Hsun Lu in two sets. The final match score was 7-5, 6-2. The Kazakhstani, who captured his first ATP World Tour trophy at Hamburg back
in July, broke serve during the eleventh game as he took the opening set, before racing to a lead of 4-0 in the following set. He went on to claim the win in a time of seventy eight minutes on Monday.
The two tennis contenders from Colombia had mixed fortunes on the day. Kevin Anderson from South Africa fought hard for a 6-1, 3-6 and 7-5 win over Alejandro Falla, whereas Santiago Giraldo got the better of Michal Przysiezny in two sets. The final match
score was 7-6(8), 6-1.
A wild card entrant Yuki Bhambri rounded out Monday’s play with a resounding 6-2, 6-0 win over Yew Ming Si who was making his debut at the ATP World Tour. The former top ranked junior tennis player, who is now ranked at the world number 532nd
spot by ATP, earned his first win at the ATP World Tour-level.
After his victory, Bhambri said, “You always win your first milestones such as getting your first (rankings) point or your first match win at ATP level, so Malaysia is good luck for me. At the start I was nervous and I dropped the first two games but I
was glad I could come back and close it out pretty easily in the end.”
In the doubles action on Monday, Scott Lipsky and Johan Brunstrom prevented seven match points to overcome Travis Rettenmaier and Santiago Gonzalez in a three setter clash at the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur. The final match score was 6-3, 1-6 and 20-18.
Johan and Scott, who are making their team debut this week, battled from 6-9 down in the tie-break and prevented four more match points to secure a win in Kuala Lumpur. They claimed the victory over this season’s Belgrade winners on their sixth match point.
At the Thailand Open in Bangkok, the top seeded Indian duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi suffered an opening-round loss at the hands of Ivan Dodig and Daniel Brands in three sets. The final match score was 7-6(5), 6-7(5) and 10-4.
Mahesh and Leander, who were making their first ATP World Tour main draw appearance after a period of two years, will also be representing India at the upcoming Commonwealth Games, which are going to be held in New Delhi.
In an encounter between the Thai- Russian wild card entries, Kittipong Wachiramanowong and Dmitry Tursunov surpassed Danai Udomchoke and Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-4, 7-5 on Monday.
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