Michael Llodra capsizes Janko Tipsarevic in round two - Open Sud de France 2013
Iconic upset was witnessed at the hard courts of Open Sud de France in Montpellier on Thursday when the 62nd ranked French star, Michael Llodra, dispatched the in-form 28-year-old Serb, Janko Tipsarevic, in straight
sets 6-3, 7-6(4) to book a spot in the quarter-final of the event.
It was a terrific performance from the left-handed French veteran who lowered the head-to-head trail to 2-3 against Tipsarevic with the help of this victory. Ironically, the last time he lost the match to the ninth ranked Serb
was way back in 2007. Previous two encounters have been won by the 32-year-old French who is looking good at his home soil.
Llodra commenced the match and didn’t make a mistake; registered the serve hold and bamboozled his opponent in the following game but couldn’t capitalise on the allotted breakpoint. However, the pressure paid off in the following
return game when the French star smashed a winner down the line to capture a breakthrough and register a lead of 3-1.
Tipsarevic looked a bit rusty on Thursday. He wasn’t moving across the court with the same comfort that is associated to his game style. Moreover, the constant pressure from the local athlete was not allowing him to settle down.
He couldn’t create an opportunity to break serve for the entire opening set and Llodra went on to draw the first blood.
The second set was intense without a doubt. Both players battled impressively especially the second seed Serb who looked a much better player; hitting the shots on the merit and finding the corners more regularly. However, he wasn’t
allowed any easy point in the return game that could have lifted the tempo of the match in his favour.
Llodra continued to hold serve and almost got a breakthrough in the 11th game of the set before the Serb fought back to keep the set alive. No player was able to break his opponent’s serve in the entire set that enforced
a tie-breaker round into play. With some guile towards the end, Llodra was able to sneak a mini-break that confirmed a major upset of the tournament.
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