Stephane Bohli edges past Bjorn Phau into quarterfinal – IPP Trophy 2011 CH
A local wild card entrant, Stephane Bohli dominated in two set’s tie-breakers to register a straight set victory over the German Bjorn Phau at the IPP Trophy 2011, an ATP Challenger Tour event taking place on the clay courts in Geneva, Switzerland. He registered a 7-6(2), 7-6(1) victory over the 32-year-old German to reach the quarter-finals on Thursday.
World number 225 Bohli maintained his composure in the tie-breakers to overpower the German, ranked seventy-two places below him in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, at his home town. The Swiss advanced into the last eight after earning this success on their first meeting in a two hour and four minutes long marathon.
The Geneva native Bohli got the first blood in the second game and went 2-0 up. However, he failed to maintain his lead and gifted away his serve in the very next game, resulting in dragging the set to a tie-breaker. The Swiss was all over the court in it and eventually clinched the opener with a 7-6(2) score line.
He defended one out of two breakpoints faced and founded six breakpoint opportunities. Despite capitalising on one of the opportunity and clobbering a poor first serve share of 45 percent as compared to German’s 65 percent, he registered an impressive 76 percent win on it.
Bohli repeated his winning ways in the final set and got an early break of serve to take the initial edge. Despite losing his serve again in the proceeding game and squandering another lead chance in the last game, the Swiss prevailed in the tie-breaker and clinched the set with a 7-6(1) win.
He manifested a considerable better first serve share of 53 percent in contrast with Phau’s 55 percent and registered a plausible 65 percent win on it. In addition to this, Bohli brushed off three out of five breakpoints came across and capitalised on two out of five breakpoint chances to his advantage.
Next challenger for the local star is the second seeded Belgian Steve Darcis who dumped Spaniard Arnau Brugues-Davi in straight sets to reach this spot.
The seeded Belgian fired fourteen ferocious aces from his box of tricks and capitalised fully on the several unforced errors Davi spilled. He saved three out of five breakpoints faced and converted five out of twelve breakpoint opportunities to his advantage. Darcis eventually sealed the deal with a 6-3, 6-3 success in one hour and seventeen minutes on their first encounter.
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