Mardy Fish destroys Igor Kunitsyn in quarter-finals – Farmers Classic 2011
Top ranked local Mardy Fish moved into the semi-final of the Farmers Classic 2011 at the LA Tennis Centre today, after doing away with the Russian world No.60, Igor Kunitsyn in straight sets in their quarterfinal match. The betting
odds were already in favour of the world number nine American.
Playing for the fourth time, Mardy had lost 2 of his matches against Igor previously. Winning the quarter-final levelled that and surely would have frustrated the Russian big time.
The match started off with Igor serving first for the opener rolling the score card to 0-1 as he gave away a breakpoint. This initiated a landslide of breakpoints as the next four games ended up in back-to-back breakpoint wins
with the scorecard reading 3-2 in favour of the American.
The fourth breakpoint won by the world No.9 was in game 7 of the first set. Turning the game into a fight Mardy slapped the next game to eat half of his pray 6-2, first set, in roughly 37 minutes. The 29-year-old American had a
better percentage of returners as he won 17 out of the total 30.
Once again Igor started off the set serving first, though this time he managed to hold his serve. The mighty Fish followed every move and levelled up the scores 1-1. The match win was still up for grabs had the Russian not blundered
in the fifth game of the second set. The world number nine broke the Russian for the 5th time in the match to lead the set 3-2. Securing the next game his lead extended to 4-2 which was more than enough to secure a match win.
The Russian did pull of some game wins but it was not enough. The 29-year-old American came up strong in both service points and returns. Totalling 31 points in the second set, Mardy concluded the set with 20 service points and
11 returners.
Finally the match concluded with Mardy fish winning the quarter-final 6-2, 6-4 retaining his winning streak. Never the less the Russian was much appreciated for his effort.
Mardy now sits in the semis to play against his fellow country man Ryan Harrison who has certainly made news by his superb performance in the Farmer Classic tournament 2011.
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