Ricardas Berankis slams down Sergiy Stakhovsky in Quarter-Final – Slovak Open 2011
Ricardas Berankis, Lithuanian world No.108, played his quarter-final match of Slovak Open 2011, against the second seed of the tour, Sergiy Stakhovsky, world No.62, jolting the higher ranked Ukrainian with a mesmerizing comeback
winner, 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-2 in an hour and 53 minutes Indoor hard court match and into the semis stage.
Making their way onto the indoor blue circuit, Stakhovsky took his side to serve the first game of the match rolling down the scoreboard, 1-0. Following next, Berankis served out his first opening serve of the fixture evening up
the scores 1-1.
Carrying on the set, the two mustered away with their respective serves, levelling up at 2-2, 3-3, 4-4 and 5-5. Unable to break each other, the two finally ended up in a tiebreaker with Stakhovsky serving first. Berankis went spectacular
as he took the first five points of the tiebreaker and led, 5-0.
However, Stakhovsky fired up and won the next five to level up at 5-5, and then on 6-6. Unable to finish off winning, Berankis slipped up in the last two points and eventually lost the tiebreaker, 8-6, and the set, 7-6(6) with
Stakhovsky leading the match, 1-0.
Continuing with the second set,Stakhovsky went for the kill, however, the lower ranked lithuanian pulled his 25-year-old rival down and out. Lithuanian served first for the set rolling down the scoreboard, 1-0, however, the 25-year-old
levelled up right away, 1-1.
Breaking the 21-year-old, Stakhovsky came back in the game, 2-1, however, lost right away as Berankis broke him back levelling the scores at 2-2. World No.62 followed with a winner, as he broke the lower ranked rival for the second
time in three games, 3-2.
Hoping to get the lead easy, Stakhovsky was brought back down as world No.108 broke back once again to even up the score, 3-3. Extending his lead, the 21-year-old took off with a service winner, 4-3. The tables turned when Berankis
broke the higher ranked 25-year-old for the third time in the set and followed with a service winner bagging game nine and winning the set, 6-3, to level the match scores, 1-1.
With the decider set on its way, Stakhovsky, frustrated, served out the first game, yet was unable to break and take the lead as Berankis levelled up right away, 1-1. The 21-year-old went spectacular breaking the higher ranked
Ukrainian in game three and serving out game four to lead the set 3-1.
Berankis, in perfect form, broke the Ukrainian rival again in game five, 4-1, and served out game six to roll down the score card, 5-1. Left out with just one more win to win a blast, the young Lithuanian blistered one of the last
two games, stunning the world No.62, second seed of the event, to bag the set and the match with a magnificent comeback.
Through into the semi-final round of the ATP Challenger Tour event, Berankis will now play against the fourth seed, Lukas Rosol for the final round seat of 2011 Slovak Open.
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