Steve Darcis beats Marsel Ilhan to grab title – The Hague Open 2011 CH
World number 95 Steve Darcis of Belgium survived a scare in the second set to overcome world number 114 Marsel Ilhan of Turkey in three sets 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in the final at the Hague Open on Sunday. The match lasted for an hour and
31 minutes.
Darcis drew the first blood as he broke the Turkish in the sixth game and held his serve in the next game to take a 5-2 lead. The Belgian served out the set at 5-3.
The five feet and ten inches tall smacked 68 percent of the first serves and two aces in the first set. Darcis claimed 79 percent of the points on the first serve and 67 percent of the points on the second serve in the opening
set. The Belgian returned brilliantly, capturing an incredible 44 percent of the first return points compared to just 21 percent by his opponent. The right-handed did not face any break point on his own serve and converted one of the five break points on Ilhan’s
serve in the first set.
Ilhan made a good start in the second set as he broke the Belgian in the third game and consolidated on it to take a 3-1 lead. However, Darcis broke back in the eighth game to tie the score at 4-4. The Turkish captured two successive
games after that, breaking the Belgian in the ninth game to grab the set 6-4.
The Istanbul resident kept his first serve percentage at 66 percent, capturing 63 percent of the points on the first serve in the second set. Ilhan made full use of his opponent’s weak second serve, converting 55 percent of the
second returns into points. The Turkish also won five of the seventeen first return points in the second set. Ilhan won both break points he received on Darcis’ serve and saved three of the four break points on his own serve in the second set.
After the score getting tied at one set apiece, Darcis bulldozed Ilhan as he broke as he broke the Turkish twice in the final set to claim it 6-2.
The Belgian played an all round game, grabbing an amazing 92 percent of the first service points and an incredible 41 percent of the first return points. The 24-year-old kept on pressurising his opponent on the second serve, sealing
five of the seven points on the second return in the third set. Darcis did not allow Ilhan to create any break point opportunity and clinched two of the three break points he received on the Turkish’s serve in the deciding set.
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