Michael Russell ousts James Mcgee to clear the opening round – Istanbul Challenger 2012
Ranked 105th in the ATP World Rankings, Michael Russell defeated the Irish contender, James Mcgee, in the first round of the American Express Istanbul Challenger 2012, held at the hard courts of Turkey. American veteran summed up, 6-3, 3-6,6-3 triumph over his rival in nearly two hours on Tuesday.
The fourth seeded, American drew the first blood in the contest and stamped a 2-1 lead by the end of the third game. However, the Irish came up with a strong game plan and brought the scores to 2-all in the very next game. Russell nudged forward and broke his rival’s serve in the sixth game, securing a 4-2 lead in the sixth game. The Irish contender failed to respond back and lost the opener with a 3-6 score.
The right-hander American veteran had a 73 per cent first serve accuracy and merrily pocketed away 17 of 19 points on it. On the hand, Mcgee smashed three aces, and fought back with a 70 percent delivery precision. He capitalized 13 of 19 points and converted five of six break chances presented to him.
In the second set, the 25-year-old Irish reversed the winning order and in the fourth game, he evened out the score line to 2-all. From that point onwards, he laboured hard and successfully broke the American professional’s serve in the sixth game and towered a 4-2 score line. Russell battled hard but miserably failed to have any sort of impact on the contest and eventually gifted the set to his rival at 3-6.
The world number 396th, Mcgee manifested 64 percent first serve precision against his competitor and clamped away 12 of 18 first and six of 10 second serve points. The right-hander American displayed 55 percent serve precision and pocketed away seven of 11 first serve points but just three of nine second deliveries. He was unable to sustain the lead, as he could not even conserve a single serve break and Mcgee snatched two of the three.
In the decider, the higher ranked American confidently marched forward and broke his opponent’s serve in the fourth game to establish his 3-1 lead. Although Mcgee resisted bringing the score line to 5-3, he failed to match his rival’s strength, closing the match with his 3-6 loss.
In the next round of the tournament, the American will face the Frenchman Gleb Sakharov.
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