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Marius Copil edged past Alexandros Jakupovic in the opening round of the Status Athens Open

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Marius Copil edged past Alexandros Jakupovic in the opening round of the Status Athens Open
20-year-old Romanian Marius Copil strained hard to win his clash against the Greek wildcard, Alexandros Jakupovic in the opening round of the Status Athens Open at Athens, Greece on Monday. Copil battled out for two hours and forty
nine minutes before winding up the three-set thriller 7-6(3), 6-7(3), 7-5, to reach the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour tournament.
An enthralling contest was seen at the hard courts of Athens with the both players giving their best to come out as the winner. Although the 29-year-old Greek veteran lost the matchup, he hung in the contest till the end. The home
favourite bagged the second set in a tie breaker round to level the match at 1-1 but lost his momentum in the later parts of the competition to end on the losing side.
The Romanian was very impressive with his serve game and amazingly bagged 52 out of 65 first serve points in the contest. Copil’s first serve precision lacked something to be desired but he fired 13 thudding aces to the opponent’s
court in the contest. He turned a little bit overambitious in banging aces and spilled out seven double faults in the process. However, Copil’s overall brilliant performance over shadowed his minor mistakes in the game.
Intense tennis was observed in the opening set of the game as Jakupovic posed some serious resistance to the Romanian. Copil won 22 out of 24 first serve points in the opener, while conceding two double faults. He broke Jakupovic
in the fourth game but the Greek retaliated with the same in the very next game to nullify his advantage.
The two contestants kept playing aggressive tennis and dragged the score to 6-6 to impose a tie breaker. Copil kept his nerve in the pressure situation and reeled off four straight points to seal the first set at 7-6(3). He banged
in six fiery aces in the next set but his higher error count gave a pass to Jakupovic to bounce back in the game. The Greek fully capitalized upon the mistakes of his opponent and stung a serve break in the eighth game to enforce one more tie breaker round
in the game. This time it was Jakupovic who took the better of his opponent and bagged the second set at 7-6(3).
The decider also went on neck-to-neck, with both players exchanging an early serve break. It appeared as if the game is heading for a third tie breaker but a critical beak points from Copil in the twelfth game concluded the contest
at 7-5.
Next up for Copil is the third seed Dudi Sela from Israel, who defeated Jerzy Janowicz in the first round of the Status Athens Open.

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