Nikola Ciric battles past Martin Alund into final eight – Sao Leopoldo Challenger 2011
Nikola Ciric of Serbia battled hard against Martin Alund of Argentina to confirm his quarter-final spot in Sao Leopoldo Challenger tournament. An epic encounter that lasted for two hours and nine minutes finished with a final score
of 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4.
Tournament was played in indoor clay-courts at Sao Leopoldo, Brazil. Ciric was fairly inconsistent and had a topsy turvy results in his last nine matches. His opponent was relatively consistent with his results but had lost three
of his last nine as well.
First set started slowly but picked up pace as soon as the first break came in the fourth game of the match. It was the loser who broke his opponent’s serve and took two game lead by stretching the score to 3-1.
Argentine held his serve and broke again to take 5-1 lead. It was clear that there was no coming back for the Serbian from that stage and he could just clinch one win on his serve before the set was over in flash.
Alund pocketed 27 points in the first set compared to just 12 of his opponent. It set a perfect stage for an enthralling comeback as everyone knew that Ciric was not going to give up anytime soon.
Ace to start with the second set, Ciric came back strong and hammered his opponent in the first two games and broke to take 2-0 lead upfront. The lead was reduced to nil when his opponent held his serve and broke in return to delight
the crowd and ease his nerves.
Epic battle continued as both players exchanged breaks in the next two games and then held their serves in the further two to push the score to 6-6 and enforce a tie-breaker to decide the set.
Both players met blow to blow and at 5-5 in tie-breaker Alund committed the double-fault that was capitalized with a perfectly placed ace by his opponent to seal the second set win and push the match into the third set.
Spectators were delighted at the proximity of the battle and were eager to witness the third and final set. Ciric with two aces in the second game and faultlessly placed drop shot excited the audience and earned him the first game
win in the last set; score was 1-1 at that stage.
Both players held on to their serves and winner kept on entertaining the crowd with his power play and struck five more aces in the set. The first and the last breakthrough in the set came at the most crucial time when the score
was delicately poised at 4-4.
Serbian broke and then capitalized in by holding his serve to take the game and win the berth at the quarter-final draws where he faces-off against the Spanish Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo.
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