Marc Gicquel ousts Stefano Galvani in first round – San Marino CEPU Open 2011 CH
The red clay at the Centro Tennis Cassa di Risparmio di Fonte dell'Ovo in the City of San Marino fired up on Monday, 8th August, as Marc Gicquel, Frenchman, took on Stefano Galvani, the local, in a breath taking three-setter
match. The San Marino CEPU Open 2011 1st rounder finished off in one hour and 42 minutes with Gicquel walking off with a 6-1, 1-6, 7-5 win and a spot in the 2nd round.
The 34-year-old Frenchman played his 3rd match against his Italian rival though recorded only his first win against him. Ranked at world No.103, Gicquel played most of his previous matches on clay, in order to improve
his play on the circuit and it did.
Challenging the Frenchman was the local favourite, Stefano Galvani. Surprisingly, the two have always met in the first round match however, this time; the Italian’s luck ran out. The San Benedetto Challenger finalist lost the 3rd head-to-head
fixture after a vicious battle in the 3rd set.
Gicquel opened up the first set of the match and the scorecard leading 1-0. The Frenchman showed his magic and broke the Italian world No. 199 twice in the next 4 games to lead 5-0. Finally taking away game 7, Gicquel took the
first set 6-1 and led 1-0 in the match.
However, the tables turned as Gicquel was thrashed with the same score. Opening the second set Galvani stormed the first game 1-0. Following his challenger, Gicquel followed to level the scores at 1-1. The thrashing started from
then onwards when the Italian won the next 5 games one after the other to a shocking set win, 6-1, and levelled the scores to 1-1 and onto the decider set.
Starting off with serving first for the final set, Gicquel opened up the score card and won a breakpoint of game 2 to lead 2-0 straight away. However, his defence broke in the next game as Galvani cut the lead to 1-2. Equalling
the score to 2-2 in the following game the Italian and the Frenchman were once again on level terms.
Winning back-to-back games on their respective serves, the two levelled the scores at 3-3, 4-4 and then again on 5-5 with the French world No.103 to serve next. Gicquel served and took away game 11 of the final set leading 6-5.
Finally the Frenchman proved to be the stronger challenger breaking the Italian in game 12 and taking away the game, set and match. The final scores read 6-1, 1-6 and 7-5.
Marc Gicquel now sits in the 2nd round to play against the mighty Monacan star, Benjamin Balleret for a spot in the quarter-finals.
Tags: