Richard Berankis outsmarts Ryan Sweeting to reach the final – Winnetka 2012 CH
World number 169, Richard Berankis, stunned the 130th ranked American, Ryan Sweeting, in the semi-final of the Winnetka Challenger on the eve of Friday. Both players contested the match in good spirit and fought until
the conclusion. However, the single mistake from the 24-year-old American cost him the match in the end. Berankis won 7-6(2), 6-4.
It was the second meeting between the two players. Previously, they contested a match in the US Open at New York. It was the first round clash and the 22-year-old Lithuanian sneaked the win in four sets taking a head-to-head lead
of 1-0.
Both players held their serves in the opening two games. An exchange of breakthroughs kept the scores together at 3-3. There were hardly any chances created by both contestants to break serve. It looked like they were more concerned
to utilize energy in their serve games rather run around and put their opponent under pressure.
No breakthrough was contested throughout the remaining part of the opening set and a tie-breaker round was enforced. It was expected that Sweeting will sneak a win but he lost a double mini-break at the start and only won two rallies
out of nine that cost him the opening set.
Nothing changed in the second set as well and both players continued to battle blow-by-blow. First nine games went by without much drama; hardly a point was lost by any player on their serve but suddenly an onslaught from the inferior
ranked Lithuanian starlet in the 10th game powered down the American who lost four straight points that forced him out of the competition.
Sweeting was in great run of form having reached the first round of the Wimbledon Championships from the qualifiers stage and got a tough draw against the eighth seed Serb, Janko Tipsarevic. He was the superior ranked players and
expected to win the match on his home soil but his pathetic timing and dismantled confidence led to his downfall. Berankis, on the other hand, has a lucky breakthrough into the final of the Challenger tournament.
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