Marsel Ilhan ousts Florent Serra to reach the main draw – China Open 2011
Rated at number 113 in the APT (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Rankings, Marsel Ilhan of Turkey faced limited resistance to dispose of the unseeded Frenchman, Florent Serra, in the final round qualifier of the China
Open on Sunday.
The contest was staged on the outdoor hard courts of the Olympic Green Tennis Center in Beijing, People's Republic of China, with the sixth seeded Turk competitor winning in straight sets 7-6(7), 6-2. Serra hung in the contest
for one hour and thirty one minutes of play before surrendering in the second set of the matchup to let Ilhan into the main rounds of the ATP World Tour 500 event.
The 30-year-old French veteran fought well in the opening set of the match to give some tough time to Ilhan but gradually lost his steam in the later parts of the contest. Ilhan took the opener in a tie breaker round and then raced
through the games in the following set to conclude a comprehensive victory in the end.
Despite of a below par serve precision of just 48 per cent, the sixth seeded Turk dropped merely three points on his serve, clinching 27 out of 30 in the entire matchup. Ilhan’s serve included seven thudding aces, which gave him
some un-fought points in the game to get the edge over his opponent. Serra secured 38 out of 53 first serve points in the contest but the Frenchman utterly failed to register a serve break in the whole competition. Ilhan nailed two out of eight break point
conversions to outplay Serra from the competition in style.
The opening set witnessed not a single serve break from both contestants and a regular game took the set into a tie breaker round. The decider also went on neck-to-neck before Ilhan closed it out at 7-6(7) to get one up in the
contest. Once pocketing the opening set, the sixth seeded Turk never looked back at his opponent and raced through the second set to claim victory at 6-2, breaking the French serve twice in the set.
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