Martin Klizan surpasses Joao Sousa to clear the 1st round – San Marino CEPU Open 2011 CH
Continuing with the 1st round of the San Marino CEPU Open 2011, an ATP Challenger Tour event, Martin Klizan, Slovakian, snatched his seat away beating Joao Sousa, Portuguese, in straight sets 6-2 and 6-4 on Monday, 8th August
2011. The match was organized at the Centro Tennis Cassa di Risparmio di Fonte dell'Ovo in the City of San Marino on red clay.
Playing for the second time head to head, Sousa won the first fixture at the Davis Cup earlier this year when Martin Klizan retired from a leg pull. However, the Slovakian took his revenge at the San Marino CEPU OPEN with and effortless
win.
The two 22-year-old went on head strong against each other. Nonetheless, Klizan triggered off and took away his challenger in straight sets. Ranked at World No.138, the Slovakian made the baseline his stronghold and returned every
shot with perfection and certainly led to his match win.
Kicking off with the 1st rounder, Sousa served first for the opener. The Portuguese won the first game however, the scores levelled up as Klizan won the next game. Game 3 was the first breakpoint win for the Slovakian
and claimed the lead 2-1. Proving to be outstanding, the 22-year-old world No.138 blistered the next 3 games including a second breakpoint win in game 5 and led the set 5-1.
Sousa could only snatch one more game before his counterpart ended the set at 6-2 and led 1-0 in the match.
The frustrated Portuguese once again served to start the set and the scorecard 1-0. The story of the first set somewhat repeated in the second as well. Levelling the scores at 1-1, Klizan broke his challenger in game 3 of the second
set and led 2-1 followed by a win in game 4 extending his score to 3-1.
This time, the Portuguese world No.198 did put up a better fight. Cutting the lead to 3-2 in game 5, he then levelled the scores for the first time in the match winning a breakpoint 3-3. However, Klizan’s effort was remarkable.
Winning a breakpoint of game 7 he followed and the game 8 to lead the scoreboard 5-3.
With a rock solid defence in his path, Sousa could only win on his serve and could not break the Slovakian. Finally winning the final game, Klizan won the second set and the match 6-2 and 6-4.
Martin Klizan now hopes to clear the 2nd round match to win his quarter-final seat as he plays the winner of the match between Rui Machado, Portuguese, and Adrian Ungur of Romania.
Tags: