Rik de Voest ousts Marcelo Melo from qualifying second round – Farmers Classic 2011
World No. 130 South African Rik de Voest successfully overtook Brazilian opponent, Marcelo Melo currently not ranked in the singles ratings. Second seed de Voest maintained a steady head throughout the three set game and emerged
with a convincing 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-0 win in an excruciatingly long one hour and forty six minutes long match. de Voest is now safely in the third round of the qualifiers at the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles.
De Voest has a career win-loss mark of 28-44 but has performed satisfactorily this season. He now stands at 4-4 win loss for the current season. His best performance was perhaps at Wimbledon this year, when he effortlessly qualified
for the mains draws of the tournament and went on playing till the second round where he was dismissed Chilean Fernando Gonzalez. Brazilian Melo’s has been performing exceedingly well on the doubles circuit and is currently ranked at No. 40 with two ATP titles
in hand. He is, however, a newcomer on the singles circuit and with this match failed to mark a healthy debut. Melo had won his first round match in Los Angeles against British Jamie Murray 6-2, 6-0. Murray also happens to be the brother of star Andy Murray.
Melo played the opening game of the first set but was abruptly broken by de Voest, setting the tone of the games to come. The set saw a flurry of activity as both the players registered 6 breakpoints combined. The first set progressed
rapidly with games 3 to 7 seeing 3 serve breaks won by de Voest against 2 that were converted by Melo. de Voest served superbly at around 73% and won 11 of his 19serve points. Both the players registered a single ace each but Melo committed two brutally criminal
double faults giving the set away to de Voest at 6-2.
The second set proved to be the longest as Melo made a desperate attempt at making a comeback. Both the players’ performed to their utmost and the set remained evenly contested. They both registered a single break of serve each
and took the game into tie break. Melo powered through the tie break by gaining seven points against his opponent’s four to win the set. However, unfortunately for Marcel, he could not sustain his new found vigour long enough to win the deciding last set.
de Voest served at around 69%, winning 9 points off his 11 serves and effectively sealed the last set at 6-0.
The second seed de Voest will play his third round qualifying match against American Tim Smyczek, seeded fifth in this round of the tournament. The match begins at around 10.00 am on Tuesday at the UCLA Tennis Stadium in Los Angeles.
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