Philipp Petzschner conquers Jan Mertl in the first round – Ortisei Challenger 2011
German Philipp Petzschner conquered Czech Jan Mertl in the first round of Ortisei Challenger tournament. The match was played at carpet surface, Bross Slide in Ortisei, Italy. Contest lasted for an hour and thirty-five minutes and finally the German placed a berth in the second round draws with a straight set 7-6(14), 6-3 victory.
Mertl was enjoying a good run of form except some recent slipups at the hands of Josselin Quanna and Andreas Beck in France F19 challenger and Eckental challenger respectively. He maintained an ecstatic winning percentage but at inferior challenger level tournaments.
Petzschner was experiencing a topsy turvy run in recent times but his defeats were in elite tournaments and at the hands of most exciting tennis stars like Kei Nishikori, Milos Raonic and Juan Martin Del Potro. On paper, it was a very straight forward contest for World No.61, Philipp Petzschner, but it was not easy as it seemed.
Czech kicked-on the proceedings and held his serve. This sea-saw battle continued till the end of the first set as no player managed to break their rival’s serve and gain any sort of advantage. It was getting increasingly frustrating for the Garman match favourite as he couldn’t capitalize on any of his three allotted opportunities to break.
Spectators loved the heated contest at the pitch and couple of close calls from the officials that went against the German double his aggravation. The score line continued to swing both ways till the end of the first set and score was tied at 6-6. Tie-breaker was enforced to decide the set between the two contenders.
A lengthy tie-breaker that enthralled the crowd was one of the best moments of the match. Pressure was piling up on the German and so was his anger. His furious looking backhands earned him some points and fortunately didn’t cost him anything at the end in the form of unforced errors.
Finally a silly mistake by the 29-year-old Czech in the form of lazy forehand cost him the set. It provided an opportunity to the German to clinch the first set that grabbed this golden opportunity with both hands and marched into the second set with a lead.
German carried his aggression into the second set and started the proceedings with couple of aces and a conquering his opponent on his serve for the first time in the match. Score was pushed to 2-2 in favour of Petzschner.
The only break of the match helped the German win the second set with ease and ended severe resistance from the Czech who was applauded for his outstanding performance. Philipp Petzschner moves into the second round and faces Philipp Oswald of Austria in his next match.
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