Stephane Robert defeats Andrey Kuznetsov to qualify for the main draw at Roland Garros
31st seed Frenchman, Stephane Robert continued his amazing run in the French Open qualies, as he beat Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia to book a berth in the main draws of the tournament on Saturday. Robert strained through
the contest to register victory in the third set 7-5, 6-7(8), 6-2, taking two hours and fourteen minutes of play.
Robert has been very consistent in the qualifying draws, winning his opening two matches assertively in straight sets. He had to labour hard to take down the aggressive Russian in the final round of the qualies before booking a
berth in the main draws of the second Grand Slam tournament of the year. The French took the opening set after a stiff contest with Kuznetsov, who made a terrific comeback in the following set to level the matchup 1-1.
Kuznetsov was aggressive right from the first minute, trying to exert pressure early on the opponent but spilled out plenty of unforced errors in the process. He conceded a total 23 unforced errors in the game, with Robert following
him with 21, including three double faults.
Both contestants were equally poor with their serve precision, as they delivered just round about 50 per cent of their first serve on target. However, Robert was very efficient on bagging points on regular occasions in the contest
and availed the crucial opportunities he received in the game to perfection. The French crafted 21 break chances and converted eight out of them en route to victory, while Kuznetsov cashed in five out of eleven break opportunities in the game.
Robert had a quick start to the opener, breaking early to lead the set 3-1 but the Russian responded immediately with a break point to eliminate the deficit. However, a second serve break from the racquet of Robert proved enough
to seal the opening set for him at 7-5 to give him the early lead in the contest.
An amazing turnaround from the Russian was seen in the following set as he came out firing at Robert to crack in a break point in the very first game. A further exchange of serve breaks was seen from both contestants before the
second set entered a tie breaker round once the scores reached 6-6. The exciting tie breaker round was extended to a total of 18 points and finally the Russian bagged the second set at 7-6(8).
The angry Frenchman turned the tables on Kuznetsov in the decisive set of the contest and broke his serve three times before he concluded an assertive victory at 6-2. Robert makes it to the main draws of the French Open, where
he will be facing the world number six, Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic, in his opening round match.
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