Rajeev Ram upsets Alexander Kudryavtsev to move into last eight - Ortisei Challenger 2011
American Rajeev Ram crawled his way into the third round against Russian Alexander Kudryavtsev in Ortisei Challenger. On Thursday November 10th, both players went head-to-head for the fourth time and it was Ram who clinched
the victory for the third time against his rival in a thrilling three-set encounter that lasted for two hours with a final score of 7-6(6), 6(5)-7, 6-3.
Russian was in dismal form and had lost bulk of his encounters in recent past whereas his opponent was in terrific form having lost just one from his last nine matches. It was clear that 27-year-old, Ram, wouldn’t lose it with
ease from a superior ranked Russian but odds for his triumph was minimal.
American started the proceedings and struck couple of aces in the first game that picked up the momentum of the game upfront. His opponent held his serve and pushed the score to 1-1. No drama was seen in earlier games of the set
as score pushed to 3-3 and then 4-4.
No player was ready to provide any opportunity to his opponent and there was hardly any game when return points for any player looked threatening to break his opponent’s serve. The score pushed to 6-6 with both players hanging
on to their serves and smashing six aces apiece.
First tie-breaker was close till the end but a massive let down by Russian in a form of a silly unforced error and helped the American win the first set. Trailing one set down and finding it hard to break, Kudryavtsev was getting
frustrated and annoyed with himself.
Russian started the second set an ace upfront and came back hard at his opponent with forceful serves. No breaks were seen in the second set as well and both players held their serves throughout the set and never allowed any opportunity
to their opponent’s to take any sort of charge at any stage of the set. See-saw score line continued until the score went to 6-6 with no major drama; both players managed to score six aces in tandem with 4 aces served by the loser.
It was Ram who made a silly mistake during the tie-breaker by committing double fault and allowed his opponent to take the second set. Match was evenly poised at that stage. Both players were willing to move into the next round
and no one wanted to surrender at all.
Ram was aggressive from the start of the second set and clinched the first breakpoint in the second game and took the lead of 3-0 by holding on to his serve in the third game. Russian couldn’t break to level the score and lost
the set in despair.
Rajeev Ram plays Marcel Zimmermann in the quarterfinal.
Tags: