Ricardas Berankis stuns Lukas Rosol in the semi-final – Slovak Open 2011
Czech Lukas Rosol was stunned by an extremely talented Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis in the semi-final of Slovak Open. The match was contested on Saturday November 19th and it was the first encounter between the two players.
Rosol couldn’t figure the shortcomings of his opponent and lost his way at the end that cost him the game with a score of 6-3, 0-6, 6(2)-7. The match just lasted for over an hour and 52 minutes.
Rosol was extremely quick in taking on his opponent with surprise and broke his serve upfront to take lead from the start. Two players exchanged breaks in the third and fourth game and score was pushed to 5-3 in favour of superior
ranked Rosol.
Czech took the first set with another break in the last game of the set and placed immense pressure on his opponent but he didn’t knew that he was up against one of the most talented players. Berankis held his nerves and forgot
about the first set.
He started the second set in a scintillating manner and smashed his opponent to all parts of the court. he broke in the first game and struck two aces in the next to take the second coupled with another break taking display in
the third that helped to break his opponent’s serve in succession.
Three breaks in succession and five aces in total left everyone absolutely stunned. No one could believe what they have seen while Rosol sadly crawled to sidelines to take a break from some hardcore hammering. It was shear class
that was not seen before in any of the games of the tournament.
Score was level at one set apiece but Berankis was filled with confidence and was all fired up to pull this in his favour. Rosol composed himself and stopped the onslaught from his opponent by continuously holding on to his serves.
No breaks were seen in the last set but power play from both players was a treat to watch. Six aces were shared in the ratio of 4:2 in favour of Czech.
Czech player had five opportunities to break his rival’s serve but he couldn’t capitalize on any of them. Surprisingly Lithuanian couldn’t earn a single opportunity to break but he didn’t allow his opponent to win either. Tie-breaker
was enforced to decide the match.
Silly mistake from the Czech in the form of a double-fault lead to his failure in the match as Berankis completely grasped that advantage with both hands and cruised into the final.
Ricardas Berankis will try his luck against Lukas Lacko for the title contest in the final.
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