Ricardas Berankis eases past Maxime Teixeira into final eight – Orleans Challenger 2011
Ricardas Berankis from Lithuania squared-off against the French, Maxime Teixeira, in the second round of the Orleans Challenger Tournament, played in France, on Wednesday October 19th. It was the first fixture between the two contenders that ended in a straight sets victory for the Lithuanian in an hour and sixteen minutes with a final score of 6-3, 6-4.
22-year-old, Teixeira, was having a miserable run of form having lost five of his last nine encounters. He desperately needed to secure a win and regain his confidence but sadly it was not the case. His opponent was in terrific form considering the fact that he had won six of his last nine matches; an obvious match favourite given his superior rank and outstanding form.
Lithuanian started the proceedings in majestic manner and won first three games in a row; broke his opponent’s serve on his way and was looking extremely threatening. Teixeira improved the score by winning the next two games but he couldn’t further carried on this form. He could only manage one more game while his opponent won three on the other hand.
Six aces in the first set for the Lithuanian and an impressive first and second serve success rate of 87% and 56% were good enough to tear his opponent apart and place him under loads of pressure. There was no coming back from that stage for a man who was already experiencing a dismal run of form and trailing one set down.
The Frenchman came up with a relatively better display in the second set but it didn’t help him to stretch the match further into the third set. He managed to win four games and in the mean time broke his opponent’s serve once but the pressure of the poor form forced him to commit three double faults which were pretty sub-standard considering his ranking.
21-year-old, Berankis, continued his power show and aced thrice in the second set; broke his opponent’s serve twice and registered a respectable first and second serve success rate of 68% and 50% respectively. He did looked rusty on few occasions but fortunately for him those unforced errors and poor shot selection didn’t cost him much.
65 points in total were won by the Lithuanian whilst his opponent won 48. Credit must be given to the Lithuanian player who held his nerves in front of the French crowd who were trying their best to dismantle his concentration.
Berankis now movies into the quarterfinal round where he will face another French, Augustin Gensse.
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