Ricardas Berankis stuns Florian Mayer to reach quarters – If Stockholm Open 2012
Lithuanian booming star, Ricardas Berankis, made an epic comeback to jolt down the fourth seed, Florian Mayer, in a three-set thriller at the If Stockholm Open 2012 on Wednesday. He juggled up a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory against the German star to progress into
the quarter-finals at this ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 Series event held in Stockholm, Sweden.
The 22-year-old stayed on track to bid for his maiden career title after recording this comeback victory in one hour and 43 minutes. Battling each other for the second time, Berankis not only avenged his loss at the Brisbane International last season but
also levelled the FedEx ATP Head 2 Head Series by 1-1 against the 29-year-old.
The world number 28 assertively entered the indoor hard courts of the Kungliga tennishallen. He swiftly bagged his entire serves without facing any real challenge. Mayer cashed one out of three break chances in the last game to get the breakthrough and seal
the opener with a 6-4 win.
Berankis made a spectacular reply in the following set. He was never threatened with any breakpoint and required a single break opportunity in the fifth game to pull out the equaliser with a 6-4 score line.
Ranked 95th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Berankis’ skills were fully polished in the final set. He got the critical break in the opening game and leaped to a 2-0 lead. After breaking his opponent’s serve once again, the
Lithuanian jumped to a 5-1 lead. He plucked his serve in the last game and clicked the decider with a 6-2 success.
On the whole, the Lithuanian youngster struck 10 aces and impressively marked 40 out of 51 points on his first serve share. He spilled a single double fault and ended the match with 98 points.
Up next for Berankis is the conqueror of the match between Colombia’s Alejandro Falla and the seventh seed, Marcos Baghdatis from Cyprus.
The Australian wild card entrant, Lleyton Hewitt, will join Berankis in the last eight. He fired nine aces and capitalised on five out of eight break chances to formulate a three setter victory.
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