Ruben Bemelmans rallies past Vincent Millot to reach the second round – Open Castilla y Leon 2011 CH
Seventh seeded Belgian competitor, Ruben Bemelmans, battled out to claim victory against Vincent Millot of France in the opening round of Open Castilla y Leon on Monday afternoon.
The contest took place on the hard courts of Segovia, Spain, with the Belgian competitor winning the exciting three-setter to reach the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour tournament. Bemelmans
concluded victory in one hour and forty two minutes of play, settling the final scores at 5-7, 6-1, 6-4, to eject the unseeded Frenchman from the tournament in the very first round.
The contest was fairly poised, with Millot getting hold of the game early by winning the first set but the seventh seeded Belgian made a tremendous come back in the matchup to turn the tables on his opponent. Bemelmans coughed
seven double faults in the matchup, six of which game in the opening set alone, but Millot exceeded his error-count by spilling out 12 alarming doubled faults in the contest.
A total of 11 serve breaks were seen in the whole matchup, with Bemelmans registering seven of them en route to victory. The opening set began with an exchange of serve breaks from both men, followed by a regular game to take the
scores to 5-5. Bemelmans kept conceding double faults throughout the set and a couple of them in the 11th game allowed Millot to strike his second break point and serve out of the first set at 7-5.
Seventh seeded Bemelmans came out firing in the second set and absolutely blew away his opponent with his fury. The Belgian stung four serve breaks to rocket away to 6-1, levelling the contest with one set a piece. He reeled off
11 out of 15 first serve points to clinch the second set, capitalising upon the five expensive double faults of his opponent.
More intense tennis was seen in the final set, with both players toiling hard to survive in the competition. Millot broke in the first game to lead 2-0 in early but Bemelmans rallied from behind him to strike a serve break to reach
5-4. His seventh break point conversion of the day in the 10th game resulted in his victory by closing out the third set at 6-4, giving Bemelmans a pass to the second round of Open Castilla y Leon.
Bemelmans will take on the unseeded Russian, Evgeny Donskoy, in the second round encounter to get a berth in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
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