Potito Starace rallies past Thiem De Bakker to advance into 2nd round – Studena Croatia Open 2011
Italian Potito Starace bounced with a breadstick to overpower Netherlands’ Thiemo De Bakker in a three set thriller at the Studena Croatian Open, a clay court tournament held in Umag, Croatia. De Bakker gave his all in the opening
set while the Italian made an epic comeback to register a 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-1 victory and advance into the second round on Tuesday.
30-year-old Starace clobbered his experience in tennis to make a remarkable comeback victory against the Dutchman, eight years younger than him, in one hour and fifty-six minutes. After earning this success on their first meeting,
the Italian not only secured a second round spot but also took lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against De Bakker.
World number 99, De Bakker tried to make quick in-roads after getting the critical break in the second game. However, he gifted away his opportunity by losing his serve in the very next game.
Later, both stars held on to their remaining serves after pinging the balls expertly onto the lines and took the set to a tie-breaker.
The Dutchman eventually edged past Starace after prevailing in it and registered a 7-6(5) win.
The world number 54, Starace went into overdrive mode in the second set and pull out the equaliser with an assuring 6-2 score line. He unleashed his true form at the start of the set and reeled off first three games in a row before
De Bakker could hold on. The Italian then converted the second breakpoint opportunity to his advantage in the last game to win comfortably. Above all, he further spiced the set by saving both breakpoints saved and by producing a brilliant first serve share
of 66 percent as compared to Dutchman’s 25 percent.
The Benevento native kept on improving his form in the final set as he bombarded massive groundstrokes to bag first five games consecutively before De Bakker held for the only time in the sixth game. The Italian then kept his serve
in the last game to earn a breadstick. Besides this, he also jolts down impressive stats to him. Starace clobbered a better first serve share of 67 percent as compared to De Bakker’s 37 percent and earned a spectacular 79 percent win on it.
Up next for the Italian is the highest ranked player of the tournament, Argentinean Juan Ignacio Chela.
31-year-old Chela is in awesome shape this season as he made a last eight showing at the French Open. He also made a final berth at Buenos Aires and led his country to glory at Dusseldorf. However, the Argentinean exited from the
opening round at Hamburg before reaching this event.
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