Malek Jaziri ousts Horacio Zeballos in quarterfinal – Geneva Challenger 2011
Tunisian Malek Jaziri staggered seventh seeded Argentinean Horacio Zeballos in the quarterfinal of the Geneva Challenger 2011.
On Friday the 11th of November 2011, the two battled each other on clay courts of the Drizia-Miremont Tennis Club in Geneva, Switzerland and after one hour and fifty three minutes, the unseeded Tunisian got the better
of the seventh seeded Argentinean in straight sets of 7-6(6), 7-5.
Zeballos had opted to serve first as he had won the service pitch and he was able to hold his service game and kick open the scoreboard to 1-0. Right behind was Jaziri and although, he didn’t bag an easy service game, he eventually
warded off his opponent to bag his service game and place himself on the scoreboard at 1-1. The two players once more repeated the feat and tied the score at two games each at the end of the fourth game.
It was in the fifth game that Zeballos had double faulted and endorsed a crucial break to Jaziri. Nonetheless, Jaziri had bagged two consecutive games and had taken a mini lead of 4-2 at the end of the sixth game. The players
then bagged a service game each and Zeballos had managed to equalize the score at five games each by the end of the tenth game.
As the players once more held their serves the set was eventually shoved into a tiebreaker. The cat and mouse chase carried well into the tiebreaker and each player matched a blow for a blow. The score kept tied initially till
two points each and then later at six points each. However, from there onwards Jaziri held his serve and then capitalized on a breakpoint to bag two straight games and clinched tiebreaker at 8-6.
Jaziri commenced the second set and he got off to a bad start as he double faulted on his second serve and endorsed an early break to Zeballos. On the other hand, Zeballos had capitalized on the breakpoint and held his serve to
take a mini lead of 2-0. During the second set, the players once again initiated a goose chase and from there onwards each player bagged his service game.
However, it was in the ninth game that Jaziri held his serve and then broke his opponent to mitigate the deficit by levelling the score at five games each at the end of the tenth game. At this point the match could’ve tilted either
way but, as Jaziri held his serve, he prayed his opponent would err or double fault. What a lucky day for Jaziri, as Zeballos erred, he presented the match to his Tunisian adversary.
Jaziri managed to round a spot in the semi final of the event where he will face second seeded Belgian Steve Darcis.
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