Philipp Kohlschreiber wins against Janko Tipsarevic in first tie at Power Horse World Team Cup
Team Germany had an excellent start at the Power Horse World Team Cup, as the 44th ranked Philipp Kohlschreiber won the opening rubber against Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia on Sunday to give his side a 1-0 lead in their
tie against Serbia.
The German wrapped up his straight sets victory at 6-4, 7-6(5), toiling for one hour and fifty five minutes of play to get the initial advantage over the Serbian team.
The back-and-forth affair featured an enthralling contest at the Rochusclub in Dusseldorf, Germany. Tipsarevic put up an excellent fight against the German but to the joy of the home crowd, the Serb failed to take down his opponent.
Kohlschreiber was brilliant in the contest and displayed magnificent clay-court skills take Germany into 1-0 lead in the tie.
The German manoeuvred through the opening round of the match but had to face some serious resistance from his rival in the next one. Kohlschreiber finally wound up the matchup in the second set tie breaker and gave Germany an upper
hand for the remaining two ties.
The two men had already faced each other twice in singles encounters, with both players winning one match a piece. Their most recent clash took place at Canada Masters last year, when Kohlschreiber was announced as the winner as
Tipsarevic retired from the contest due to injury.
The German proved his mettle this time round and inflicted a second defeat to the Serb opponent to lead their head-to-head series by 2-1.
Despite of a par serve of 65 percent, Kohlschreiber managed to bag sufficient points to edge past his opponent in the game. Four double faults were also conceded by the Serb, which eventually wore him out later in the game. Kohlschreiber
appeared in an attacking manner right from the start and kept a tight check on his unforced errors. Tipsarevic broke early in the set but couldn’t sustain his momentum in the game and detracted shortly afterwards. The aggressive German bagged 18 out of 27
first serve points in the opener and inflicted two serve breaks to Tipsarevic before sealing the first set at 6-4.
The nail biting second set was dragged into a tie breaker round after the two contestants refused to submit the game. An early exchange of serve breaks was witnessed from both contestants before the tie breaker came into play.
Kohlschreiber held his nerve in the decider and finished off the contest in style at 7-6(5) to take Team Germany one up in the tie against Serbia.
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