Marsel Ilhan and Cedrik-Marcel Stebe advance into the next round at the 2011 Rai Open
Turkish tennis-pro Marsel Ilhan came back from a set deficit 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 against Guillermo Olaso of Spain to book a second round spot at the 2011 Rai Open in Rome.
Ilhan looked a bit out of sort as the first set started. He over hit his forehand and backhand shots on a number of occasions and paid the price. The 23-year-old had a chance of breaking the serve in the second game of the set
with three break points. However his opponent, Olaso displayed some crafty tennis to save the break points and then broke the serve twice to pocket the first set 6-2.
Ilhan regrouped himself and came up with a brilliant strategy to down his opponent in the second set. At the end of the first set, Ilhan looked down and out but he bounced back brilliantly with a double serve break in the following
set as he forced the match into the final set.
In the decider both players displayed highly competitive tennis. Several long rallies were exchanged however Ilhan managed to clinch four straight points on his opponent’s serve to earn the crucial break of serve. He then claimed
all the next games on his own serve to book a quarterfinal berth at the red clay courts tournament.
With his extremely accurate serve, Ilhan converted 62 per cent of the points on his first serve. His second serve was also on target most of the times as he earned 55 per cent of the points on the second serve. In addition to his
attacking abilities, the Turk had a formidable defense that allowed him to save certain break points during the contest. Ilhan has been in decent touch since the start of this season reaching his career high ranking of world number 87 in January 2011. The
23-year-old continued to improve his impressive run as he came back from behind to snatch victory.
In another match Cedrik-Marcel Stebe of Germany eased past Austrian Thomas Muster 6-0, 6-3 to make it through to the second round at the Challengers tournament.
The 20-year-old German started off in fine fashion breaking the serve in the very first game of the match. Stebe won the first set comfortably without dropping a single game.
Muster lifted his spirits and came up with a better performance in the following set. He made a serve break and executed his shots a lot better but he was unable to stop the German from earning a well deserved victory 6-0, 6-3.
Stebe’s next round opponent will be Evgeny Donskoy of Russian who defeated Nikola Mektic 6-4, 7-6.
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