Stephane Bohli outsmarted Igor Sijsling to reach the quarter-finals of the Status Athens Open
Seventh seed Stephane Bohli of Switzerland edged past the Dutch competitor, Igor Sijsling in the second round of the Status Athens Open at Athens, Greece on Thursday. The 27-year-old Swiss won the three-set matchup 6-7(4), 6-4,
6-2, in one hour and forty four minutes to make it to the quarter-finals of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour tournament.
The Swiss had to make a comeback in the game after dropping the hard-fought opening set but cruised through the rest of the competition with ease. Bohli capitalised upon the mistakes of his opponents very well to eject him out
of the tournament.
Sijsling had a decent start to the contest, bagging the opener in a tie breaker round but gradually lost his steam in the later parts of the game to end on the losing side. The 23-year-old Dutch showed good command over his serve
but the high error count in the last two sets of the match wore him out in the competition.
The serve dominated contest witnessed a total of 20 aces, 11 of which were fired from Bohli’s racquet, with no double faults. The seventh seeded Swiss was phenomenal with bagging points and clinched 39 out of 47 first serve points
in the game. He dropped his serve to the Dutch competitor twice in the opening set only and then never allowed a single opportunity to Sijsling to crack a break point in the contest.
Intense tennis was observed in the first set, with Sijsling having a slight edge over his opponent with his 76 per cent precise first serve. He broke Bohli early in the game but the Swiss retaliated with the same to nullify his
advantage. Another exchange of serve breaks was seen from both players in the ninth and the tenth game of the opener, driving the set into a decisive tie breaker round at 6-6. Bohli competed well in the decider but tend to lose his focus for a while, letting
the Dutch competitor seal the first set at 7-6(4).
The Swiss bagged 100 per cent of his first serve points in the following set and registered two serve breaks before clinching the second set at 6-4. Sijsling’s game dropped devastatingly in the final set as Bohli again reeled off
all of his first serve points to gain the competitive advantage over the Dutch. The second serve break from Bohli marked an end to the contest at 6-1, giving him access to the quarter-final stage of the Status Athens Open.
Up next for Bohli is the top seed German, Benjamin Becker, who overcame Stephane Robert in the second round to reach the quarter-finals at Athens.
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