Michael Yani strains pass Denis Kudla into the semi-final – Hall of Fame Championships 2011
30-year-old American veteran, Michael Yani, toiled hard to take down his fellow compatriot, Denis Kudla in the quarter-final of the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships on Friday.
The wildcard entrant, Kudla, hung in the contest for two hours and eleven minutes before he finally crumbled in the third set to lose the matchup at 3-6, 7-6(5), 5-7, letting Yani into the semi-finals of the ATP (Association of
Tennis Professionals) World Tour tournament.
The nail biting contest was staged at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, United States, with of the local men battling it extremely hard to take the better of one another. A number of significant momentum
swings were seen in the matchup but the American qualifier held his nerve in the intense pressure situations of the match to come out as the winner in the end.
Yani was off to a flyer in the opening set and tend to get under Kudla’s skin early in the game. With a poor first serve precision of just 48 per cent, the American veteran sneaked in three crucial serve breaks to get the upper
hand in the opener. Kudla also registered his first break point of the day in the fourth game but his five double faults proved very much taxing for him, letting away some critical points to his opponent. Yani fully capitalised upon the errant stroke play
of his fellow countryman and eventually sealed off the first set at 6-3 to get 1-0 in the contest.
The 30-year-old kept his dominance in full flow in the earlier parts of the next set but tend to lose focus as the game progressed. His two crafty serve breaks were replied with two cracking break points from Kudla, who kept on
pinching points on regular occasions to move on neck-to-neck with Yani to dead lock the scores at 6-6. A tie breaker round was enforced and after some stiff competition among the local men, Kudla finally clinched the second set at 7-6(5) to level the contest
with one set a piece.
Intensity rose to the maximum level in the final set, as the contestants laboured extremely hard to close out victory for them. Yani’s third serve break of the set proved decisive in the last moments of the contest to bestow victory
on him at 7-5, booking him a berth in the semis of the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships.
Yani will face off the sixth seed Belgian, Olivier Rochus in the semi-final clash on Saturday.
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