Michael Russell scores major win against Dmitry Tursunov in opener – Farmers Classic 2011
American Michael Russell forged ahead after the first set defeat at 6-7(5/7) to register two decisive wins against third seed Russian Dmitry Tursunov in the next sets at 6-0, 6-2, pulling off the first upset of the Farmers Classic
2011. Los Angeles witnessed two other first round matches on Monday, with compatriot Ryan Sweeting and Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu moving to the second round. Tursunov was the only seeded player in action on the first day.
The 110th ranked American is currently on the prowl to win his maiden career title but has been unsuccessful so far. He came into the tournament with a win-loss standing of 7-13 and has last played in Atlanta, where
he was ousted by Kevin Anderson in their second round match. Russell’s opponent, the much better placed Tursunov currently occupies the 46th position on the rankings’ table and has a successful spell so far this season. He has won challenger titles
in Bath and Singapore and has even clinched an ATP title at s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands this June.
The two players held an unchallenged head to head mark of 0-2 in Tursunov’s account, prior to Monday’s match at the Los Angeles Tennis Courts on-campus in UCLA. They last met in the 2009 edition of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells, where Tursunov won the three set match.
Tursunov secured the first set by veering past two set points in the twelfth game to force the game into a tie break. The longest and most competitive set of the match ended with Tursunov winning 7 points against Russell’s 5. Both
the players registered one break of serve each in games 4 and 5. Russell however showed dexterity in serving, even in the first set. He grabbed four aces and 78% of his first serve points.
Unable to sustain the strength that pulled him through the first set, Tursunov struggled in the next two and Russell won both with considerable ease. Russell won 3 breakpoints in the second set, while he himself surprisingly faced
none. Despite serving at 70%, Tursunov was able to accumulate only 8 of the 19 serve points – a dismal 42%. Struggling to cope with his opponent’s renewed vigour he performed even badly in obtaining only 25% of his 2nd serve points. Russell breezed
through the set winning 6-0.
The third set followed precedent set by the second and Russell sealed it at 6-2 to win the match. In all 4 breakpoints were recorded in the last set, 3 by Russell against only 1 by Tursunov.
Russell will now feature in his second round match against either special exempt Ryan Harrison or Richard Berankis, depending on the outcome of their first round match.
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