Rik De Voest moves past Michael Yani into the main draw – Malaysian Open 2011
Rik De Voest, South African, cleared the final qualifier round of Malaysian Open 2011 to make it into the main draw. Battling out against Michael Yani, American world No.195 beating him in straight sets, 7-6(3), 6-4. Playing on
indoor hard courts at Putra Stadium, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, the 31-year-old South African took an hour and 41 minutes to finish up in the main draws of the ATP Tour 250 event.
Although Yani had a better prior 10 match record, Voest ranking proved sufficient to help him advance into the round of 32. Other than that, the two have been pure hard court players so that had to be negated as the two clashed
out in the final qualifier.
Walking down the hard circuit, the two took their positions as Yani won the service toss and opened up the game. Breaking early Voest mumbled through the first set winning and taking the lead with a breakpoint win, 0-1. Serving
out game 2, the 31-year-old extended his lead to 2 games to zero.
Hitting his first run on the board, Yani took out game 3 with a stunning backhand down-the-line. However, the American could not break back until game 6. Serving out game 5, the 30-year-old broke and then served out to take lead,
4-3.
Levelling up instantly, Voest cleared up the lead and stood to return the American once again. Returning with equal strength, the two ended up levelling at 5-5 and eventually, the set went into a tiebreak. Voest stormed up with
huge forehands and cross-courters to win the crucial tiebreaker and the set, 7-6(3).
Dominating through the first set, world No.129, Voest, served out the opening game of set 2 winning 1-0. Levelling up next, the American kept on levelling up whenever he saw his rival in lead. However, Voest finally overpowered
Yani when he broke-served-broke, game 5, 6 and 7, the 30-year-old and took the lead, 5-2.
Yani bounced back when he broke-n-served next to cut the lead to 4-5, however, could not retain his own serve and gave away a breakpoint and lost the set 6-4. Voest, with a startling performance took over the match in straight
sets and made it into the main draw.
Comparatively, the two performed equally well overall. Voest won the match by a mere 6 percent difference in service, return as well as total points. Totalling 76 points, the South African bagged 47 service and 29 return points
to qualify for the round of 32.
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