Richard Berankis rallies past James McGee into quarterfinal – Istanbul Challenger 2011
Lithuanian Richard Berankis bounced back at Irish qualifier James McGee to register a three setter victory in the quarterfinal round at the 2011 Istanbul Challenger. He jolted down a 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 score line against the 24-year-old
Irish to secure a semi-final spot on Friday.
Ranked 157th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Berankis required a third set to rally past the Irish, ranked 284 places below him, in two hours and twenty-five minutes on their second face-to-face.
The Dublin native, McGee thundered into the opening set and stunned Berankis after earning the coveted break in the opening game. After the Lithuanian held his serve in the third game, McGee went berserk and reeled off next four
games in a row to earn the breadstick.
The Lithuanian dug his way back in the game and earned the first blood in the third game to take lead for the first time. Despite squandering it in the proceeding game and gifting away his second serve in the eighth game, Berankis
roared back by wiping out final four games consecutively and sealed the deal by winning seven games to five.
The Lithuanian maintained his composure in the final set and earned the desiderated break in the starting game to take the initial lead. He broke again in the fifth game and eventually went 5-1 up. Berankis finally kept his serve
in the last game to clinch the decider with a 6-2 score line.
The 21-year-old Lithuanian proved his class throughout the match. Despite clobbering a slightly lower first serve share and warding off only three out of eight breakpoints faced, he converted five out of sixteen breakpoint opportunities
to his advantage to clinch comfortably.
He will next face the winner of the match between fifth seeded Uzbek Denis Istomin and second seeded Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin. The Lithuanian needs to raise the bar of his game to face a seeded player and to reach further in the
event.
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