Ricardas Berankis overpowers Albano Olivetti in the 2nd round – IPP Trophy 2011 CH
Eight seeded Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis warded off late resistance by the French qualifier Albano Olivetti at the IPP Trophy 2011, a clay court tournament from the ATP Challenger Tour series held in Geneva, Switzerland. He registered
a 7-6(3), 6-3 victory over the 19-year-old French to secure a last eight spot on Thursday.
Berankis stayed solid on the Swiss courts to triumph over the Frenchman, ranked 452nd in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, in almost one and half hour. Duelling for the first time, the Lithuanian dominated
to edge past his rival and booked a quarter-final spot.
World number 114, Berankis confidently entered the Swiss clay courts and after Olvetti held his serve in the opening game, he went on rage mode to wipe out the next three games in a row. However, the Lithuanian squandered his lead
in the sixth game and dragged the set to a tie-breaker. Berankis was all over the court in it and subsequently clinched the opener with a 7-6(3) success.
He spilled more errors and double faults but clobbered a better first serve share of 68 percent as opposed to the teenager’s 59 percent. In addition to this, the Lithuanian saved half of the two breakpoints came across and cashed
in one of the two breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
21-year-old kept momentum rolling into the final set and after brushing off both breakpoints faced, he pocketed entire serves. The Lithuanian capitalised on the only breakpoint opportunity to his advantage in the fourth game and
sealed the set by winning six games to three.
Berankis gave a solid performance in this set as he manipulated a much better first serve share of 59 percent as compared to the Frenchman’s 47 percent and earned a spectacular 81 percent win on it. Furthermore, he produced zero
breakpoint this time around and hit three aces.
The Lithuanian will next face Belgian youngster David Goffin who shocked third seeded German Matthias Bachinger in troublesome three sets to reach this spot.
Second seed Steve Darcis of Belgium will be joining Berankis in the last eight. He smacked fourteen aces, seven in each set, and broke Spanish Arnau Brugues-Davi’s serve five times to seal the deal with a 6-3, 6-3 victory.
Darcis capitalised on five out of twelve breakpoint opportunities to his advantage and saved three out of five breakpoints faced. He also clobbered a slightly higher first serve share of 58 percent as compared to the Spaniard’s
52 percent and registered an impressive 68 percent win on it.
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