Potito Starace crushes Ivan Nedelko in opening round –
St. Petersburg Open 2011
Italy’s Potito Starace drills through Russian Ivan Nedelko with a bagel and a breadstick at the St. Petersburg Open 2011, an ATP World Tour 250 series event taking place on the indoor hard courts in St. Petersburg, Russia. He barely
sweated to register this exceptional 6-0, 6-1 score line over the 25-year-old Russian to reach the second round on Monday.
World number 53, Starace outclassed the Russian, ranked 339 spots below him, in a forty-four minute marathon on their first meeting. He not only advanced into the second round but also took lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0
against Nedelko.
The 30-year-old Italian veteran used his experience to give a flawless performance at the Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex. He unleashed flurry of groundstrokes to go on a six game tear and earned a bagel in the opening set.
Starace dusted away both breakpoints came across and cashed in on all three breakpoint opportunities to his advantage. He further spiced the set by clobbering a higher first serve share of 67 percent as compared to Nedelko’s 46
percent and registered a spectacular 83 percent win on it.
The high spirited Italian continued reeling off games in the second set before the Russian could come on score sheet for the first time in the fourth game. Starace kept his savage mode on to wipe out last three games in a row and
handed a breadstick to the Russian.
He warded off all three breakpoints faced and capitalised on both breakpoint chances to his advantage. The Italian continued mustering the set by manipulating a much higher first serve share of 56 percent in contrast with the Russian’s
29 percent and earned a superb 86 percent win on it.
Next up for the delighted Italian is the winner of the match between Russians, eight seed Dmitry Tursunov and qualifier Teymuraz Gabashvili. Starace needs to stay focus and play in a similar manner to surpass a seed.
Dudi Sela of Israel will be joining the Italian in the next round. He upset third seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov in straight sets just under an hour on their first face-to-face.
Tags: