Radek Stepanek breezes past Jarkko Nieminen into the final eight – Brisbane International 2012
Czech sixth seed, Radek Stepanek, helped himself with an easy straight sets 7-6(3), 6-2 triumph over the Finn, Jarkko Nieminen, in the second round of Brisbane International on Wednesday. Both experienced contestants have encountered
each other on multiple occasions and know each other game style better than any other. It was the eighth encounter between the two and Stepanek helped himself to his sixth head-to-head victory that took an hour and twenty eight minutes to conclude.
Since couple of victories in 2003, Nieminen hasn’t been able to clinch any sort of glory in the match against the Czech. It was another good opportunity for him to break the shackles and help himself to a stunning victory but it
went the other way round. After a tough fight in the first set, Stepanek just cruised past in the second to place himself in the quarter-finals.
Both players held their respective serves in the first two games and then exchanged breaks in the next two to push the scores to two games apiece. First serve proved to be the critical success factor for both players. Sixth seed
Czech struck three aces in the first set and couple of them were struck in the sixth whilst another stunning ace was seen in the eighth game of the set.
Score kept ticking over as the see-saw battle between the two contenders continued; score was pushed to 5-5 before sixth seed astonished everyone with his commanding display of all round shots that helped him clinch the crucial
break at that stage. To his surprise, Finn was not going to give up so early and he fought hard to break in the next game and levelled the score at 6-6; tie breaker was enforced to decide the first set.
With enriched experience and better composure, Stepanek eased himself to clinch the first set by winning the tie breaker. Trailing one set down and looking worn out due to the length of the opening set, it was extremely difficult
for the Finn world number 77 to enforce the third set into play. Czech started the proceedings in dominating fashion having won his first serve game and broke in the second to take 2-0 lead.
Sixth seeded Czech continued to dominate the game and didn’t allow his rival to take any sort of advantage. He bagged the second set in grand style breaking the rival’s serve and marching into the next round.
Radek Stepanek locks horns against the winner of the match between third seed, Alexandr Dolgopolov, and Igor Andreev.
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