Stephane Bohli edges past Konstantinos Economidis in the first round of the Status Athens Open
World number 146 Stephane Bohli of Switzerland proved too good for the 33-year-old Greek wildcard, Konstantinos Economidis in the opening round of the Status Athens Open at Athens, Greece on Tuesday. The 27-year-old Swiss toiled
for one hour and forty five minutes before he wrapped up his straight sets victory at 7-6(4), 7-5, to move one step ahead in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event.
The contest was a treat to watch for the crowd at Athens as some high quality tennis was displayed by the two competitors in the match. The opener was extended to a tie breaker round after the both competitors refused to submit
the game and the second set also went to the wire, being extended to 12 games before Bohli clinched it.
Economidis hung in the contest most of the time but tend to lose his focus on critical moments. He played good calculated strokes but the lack of aggression and agility led the 33-year-old down in the game. He had four chances
to crack a serve break but was denied three times by his proactive opponent, who converted two out of seven break points.
Although the Dutch delivered his first serve with 59 per cent precision, he fired 10 rapid aces to exert pressure upon his opponent and bagged 37 out of 48 first serve points in the game. Bohli frittered away five chances to break
the opponent’s serve and just converted two opportunities en route to victory.
The opener kicked off with both player launching series of attacks upon each other, tending to get on top. None of the contestants registered a break point in the first set and the scoreboard kept ticking on even terms to reach
6-6. Bohli won amazingly 21 of23 first serve points in the opener and was good with his return game. A decisive tie breaker round was imposed and the Swiss proved his dominance to reel off the first set at 7-6(4).
Bohli ignited the second set with two straight aces and fired four more later to pressurise the Greek. He captured less number of points with his serve in the second set but stung two serve breaks to edge past his opponent to victory
at 7-5. He will now have to play against Igor Sijsling of Netherlands in the second round clash of the Status Athens Open. Sijsling defeated Marek Semjan 6-3, 6-2, in the first round of the Challenger Tour event at Athens.
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