Paolo Lorenzi flashes past Dino Marcan into second round – Salzburg Indoors 2011 CH
Fourth seeded Italian Paolo Lorenzi eases through Croatian lucky loser Dino Marcan with a breadstick at the Salzburg Indoors 2011, an ATP Challenger Tour event held on the indoor hard courts in Salzburg, Austria. He fended off
early resistance to register a 7-6(5), 6-1 victory over the 20-year-old Croat to secure a second round spot on Tuesday.
Ranked 110th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Lorenzi displayed exceptional skills to cruise past the Croat, ranked 244 places below him, in straight sets. After earning success in this one hour
and forty-five minutes long duel, he took one step closer to $85,000 prize money and his maiden year-to-date title.
29-year-old Italian confidently entered the Salzburg Arena and after losing only a single serve, he kept remaining serves convincingly. Lorenzi saved three out of four breakpoints came across and on the other hand he capitalised
on one out of three breakpoint opportunities to his advantage. The set eventually went to a tie-breaker where the Italian got the upper hand and clinched the opener with a 7-6(5) win.
The Italian clobbered a poor first serve share of 46 percent in contrast with Marcan’s 65 percent but registered an impressive 73 percent win on it.
Lorenzi raised the bar of his game in the final set as he swiftly bagged entire serves without facing any breakpoint. Furthermore, he cashed in both breakpoint chances to his advantage and pocketed the set with a breadstick.
The Italian formulated a much better first serve share this time around i.e. 60 percent as opposed to the Croat’s 39 percent and earned a superb 83 percent win on it.
A former world number 83, Lorenzi is enjoying a great on-going season. He lifted titles at Ljubljana and Pereira Challenger Tour events and made last four berths at Rijeka, San Benedetto, Como and Todi. Further mustering his season,
the Italian made quarter-final showing at many tournaments. He was standing at 140th rank in the opening of the season and climbed thirty spots before entering this event.
Next challenge for Lorenzi is the German, Bjorn Phau who eased past Argentinean Federico Delbonis to reach this spot.
The German warded off both breakpoints came across and converted three out of ten breakpoint opportunities to his advantage. He also registered a spectacular 84 percent win on his slightly lower first serve share and sealed the
deal with a 6-2, 6-4 score line in one hour and seventeen minutes.
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