Roberto Bautista-Agut outdoes Andrey Kumantsov in the opening round of the Status Athens Open
22-year-old Spaniard, Roberto Bautista-Agut put up a great show of professional tennis to dispense Andrey Kumantsov of Russia out of the Status Athens Open at Athens, Greece on Tuesday. The Spaniard concluded the straight sets
victory 7-6(5), 6-2, in one hour and twenty five minutes of play to clear the opening round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event.
A competitive opening set was witnessed by the crowd as Kumantsov posed some serious resistance before dropping the first set. His game took a sudden downslide in the second set which he surrendered to the Spanish opponent in 40
minutes to end his voyage at the Challenger tour tournament.
The critical success factor for Bautista-Agut was his precise serve game and rock solid defence. The Spaniard took very few risks in the game as he was assisted by the unforced errors from Kumantsov. Bautista-Agut delivered 75
per cent of his first serve on target and magnificently secured 36 out of 45 points on it to edge the Russian. Kumantsov’s bleak serve reached just 56 per cent accuracy and he nabbed 60 per cent first serve points on it, conceding two double faults.
24-year-old Kumantsov pinched just one serve break in the whole matchup while dropped his serve on three different occasions. His valiant efforts in the opener redistricted his opponent to get in the lead, as he hung in the game
to keep the scoreboard ticking on equal terms. Bautista-Agut clinched 22 of 31 first set points in the first set and successfully saved one break point from his opponent.
The two contestants exchanged a serve break and took the scores to 6-6 to enforce a decisive tie breaker round. the decider also went on neck-to-neck but Bautista-Agut won passed the test of nerves in the game to nab three straight
points to bag the opening set at 7-6(5).
Kumantsov had a drastic slump in the next set and proved a wall of sand for the Spaniard. The Russian dropped his serve two times and won only 11 out of 38 total points being played in the second set. Bautista-Agut displayed his
sheer domination in the contest by delivering 82 per cent of his first serve on target and winning 14 out of 14 points on it to seal the contest at 6-2.
Bautista-Agut marches on to the second round where he will be facing the fourth seed German, Matthias Bachinger, who won his opening round matchup against the Romanian qualifier, Teodor-Dacian Craciun in straight sets 6-3, 6-1.
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