Nikola Ciric beats Frank Dancevic in opening round – Palermo Challenger 2011
The Serbian International Nikola Ciric locked horns with Canadian Frank Dancevic in the Men’s Final Qualifying Round in ATP Challenger Tour. This match took place in Palermo, Italy. Dancevic won the first set with a tie breaker
but not before it went down the wire. Ciric strongly came back and hampered Dancevic with a commanding victory in the second set. The Serb continued his power show and ended up sealing a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 victory and proceeding to the next round in one hour and
47 minutes.
First round was a see-saw battle amongst the two competitors and it was extended to the tie breaker after both players won 6 sets apiece. Both players were equally talented and were pretty close in the ATP world’s ranking. The
Serbian was 12 ranks below the Canadian but first round was so close that no one felt an inch’s difference in the talent and skill of both.
Total points won differed by just three points and those three points helped the Canadian to take the lead in the first set. Dancevic was impressive when it came to critical point. Ciric had three break points to take the set but
Dancevic saved all of them. However, the only chance Dancevic got he grasped it with both hands and won the set 7-5.
This game was lining up for an upset but Ciric came back in the second set and won it with a cumulative score of 6-4. It was an enthralling contest but it seemed like Dancevic was just a bit bobbing up and not comfortable on the
pitch. It seemed like he was not able to capitalize on his exciting start and hence lost his way in the middle of the set which allowed Ciric to take over and finish it off. The Serb sealed the set with four aces and a better serve to return point ratio than
Dancevic.
The length of the match tired Dancevic and in the third set he had no answers to the prolific display of classy tennis shots and finally won the third round by 6-3. Ciric won the match and proceeded to the second round of the event.
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