Mikhail Kukushkin wins against Sam Querrey at Power Horse World Team Cup
Kazakhstan’s hopes remain alive in the contest when Mikhail Kukushkin defeated American, Sam Querrey, in the single rubber of the their tie with United States at the Power Horse World Team Cup, in Dusseldorf, Germany, on Tuesday.
The Kazakh toiled for two hours and nine minutes to settle the three-setter at 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, to edge past the world number 26 Querrey.
After losing the opening tie 0-3 against Argentina, Team Kazakhstan desperately needed a victory against the American squad to remain alive in the competition. Andrey Golubev failed to provide the breakthrough to his side and got
defeated in straight sets at the hands of Mardy Fish of the United States.
It appeared as if the Americans will wipe out Team Kazakhstan comprehensively until Kukushkin registered the first win of the tournament from his side. The 61stranked Kazakh had a stiff contest against Querrey before
he finally took him down to level the competition to 1-1 for his side.
The American had an excellent start to the game and had no trouble in bagging the opener in the ninth game to get the early advantage. Kukushkin made a terrific comeback to clinch the next set and enforce a third one. The decisive
set went on neck-to-neck but Kukushkin proved to be the better man and sealed victory to give hope to his team.
Querrey had defeated Kukushkin in straight sets in their last encounter at Miami Masters last month but couldn’t repeat the similar feat this time round. He got the desired start in the opener and stung an early serve break to
get the ahead of the Kazakh opponent. Kukushkin competed very well in the opening set but couldn’t recover from the early damage inflicted by the opponent’s serve break, eventually losing the first set at 3-6.
A dramatic turnaround was witnessed in the following set, as the Kazakh competitor bounced back very strongly. Kukushkin suffered two serve breaks form the American opponent but clouted three break points in reply. He managed to
bag the second set at 7-5 and bring the contest back on event terms.
It all came down to the decisive third set, as the two contestants came down crashing to snatch glory for their country. An early exchange of serve breaks was witnessed in the third set, followed by a routine game which took the
scores to 5-5. It was anticipated that the set heading towards a tie breaker round but a critical break point from Kukushkin turned the course of the game. Kukushkin finally accomplished his surprise win over Querrey at 7-5 to get Kazakhstan on the scoreboard.
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