Nicolas Devilder crushes Filip Krajinovic to reach round two – French Open 2012
In an all-qualifier affair, local star Nicolas Devilder devastated the Serbian contestant, Filip Krajinovic, with a bagel at the Roland Garros 2012 on Sunday. He jolted down a 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 victory against the 20-year-old to breeze into the round of 64 at
this Grand Slam event taking place on the clay courts in Paris.
The local veteran ruled throughout the court number seven to outclass Krajinovic in their first battle against each other. As a result, Devilder comfortably booked a spot in the second round at this second of the four Grand Slam events this season.
Devilder made a poor start at the French dirt and gifted away his opening serve to trail at 0-1. Despite recovering in the very next game, he lost his serve again and went 1-2 down. However, the French unleashed his true colours and stroke out the last four
games to pull out the opener with a 6-2 score line.
Ranked 286th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Devilder kept momentum rolling and earned the desiderated break in the second game to jump to a 3-0 lead. Despite losing his edge in the fifth game, the French wiped out the last
three games and pocketed the set by winning six games to two.
In the final set, the 32-year-old was at his top form. He unleashed flurry of groundstrokes and reeled off all six games in a row. Devilder dusted away the lone breakpoint he faced and capitalised on three out of four break opportunities to pull out the
final set with a bagel.
Overall, the French clobbered a lower first serve share of 51 per cent as compared to his rival’s 63 per cent but amazingly availed 24 out of 36 points on it. He also spilled 16 unforced errors and hammered 24 winners to conquer the match.
Up next for Devilder is his fellow qualifier, Michael Berrer, who shocked 30th seeded Jurgen Melzer in a five-set thriller to set-up this battle.
The fifth seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also earned the Spotlight later that day. He bounced back to outmuscle the Russian challenger, Andrey Kuznetsov, in four sets to progress.
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