Mirza Basic ousts Bobby Reynolds in 1st round of Knoxville Challenger 2011
Qualifier Mirza Basic flabbergasted second seeded American Bobby Reynolds in the first round of the Knoxville Challenger 2011.
The two rivals had confronted each other on indoor hard courts of the University of Tennessee’s Goodfriend Tennis Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. After simply one hour and twenty minutes, Basic thrashed the second seeded American in straight sets of 6-3, 6-3 on the 9th of November 2011.
Albeit Reynolds had hit 71 percent of his first serves on target, he lost most of his points because he was only able to accomplish 50 percent of his first serve points won. He not only had a poor serve but also a miserable return that allowed him to accomplish only 40 percent of his total return points won in the opening set.
The first round of the match was kicked off by Basic as he had won the service toss and both the players were unable to hold their first service game and thus traded in breaks to place themselves on the scoreboard at 1-1. However in the third game Basic smashed three aces and bagged an easy game without much opposition. He then broke his adversary to take a mini lead of 3-1 by the end of the fourth game.
In the following four games neither player slipped and both kept bagging their service games and by the end of the seventh game the score had progressed to 5-2. Although in the next game Reynolds reduced the deficit to 3-5, he was unable to muster the numbers.
Nevertheless, It was in the ninth game that Basic finally held his serve and clogged the opening set to go one up in the match.
This time the second set of the match was initiated by Reynolds and he got off to a poor start as he was unable to ward off his opponent and hold his serve. Nonetheless, Basic had reeled off two successive games and placed himself on the scoreboard with a mini lead of 2-0.
Basic further increased his lead to three games as he capitalized on a second break and with a hold of serve the score had shifted to 4-0 at the end of the fourth game.
It was in the fifth game that Reynolds was able to hold his serve and the score had shifted to 4-1. The serve switched and Basic was now only a game away from victory however, he was unable to close the game in next game. However, as the two broke each other back-to-back, Basic had sealed his victory of the set and the match.
Next up for Basic will be his compatriot Amer Delic in the second round of the tournament.
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