Steve Darcis ousts Simone Bolelli in 2nd round qualifier – Erste Bank Open 2011
Steve Darcis, world No.95, held his strong defence against his 2nd qualifier round rival of Erste Bank Open 2011, Simone Bolelli, Italian world No.128, to win a hard battle, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, in an hour and 46 minutes indoor
hard court match on Sunday, 23rd October at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna.
Winning the toss, Darcis served for the match opener and followed with his first win of the match, 1-0. Rolling down the scoreboard again, Belgian broke his Italian counterpart, ranked world No.128, and rushed up the lead, 2-0.
Serving out next, the 27-year-old boosted his lead to 3 games to zero early in the set.
Bringing down the lead, Bolelli served out his first win of the match, 1-3, and broke back to cut the lead to 2-3, captivating game 5, and serving again next. Pocketing his third consecutive game, the Italian levelled up the scores
and switched 3-3.
With 2 more wins for each of the two, levelled up at 4-4 and 5-5 before Darcis finally struck again. Serving out game 11, the 27-year-old broke Bolelli in game 12, 7-5, winning the first set and led the match, 1-0.
Moving on with the second set, Darcis once again took out the opening game, 1-0, however, the Italian lower ranked rival levelled up the next instant. Pushing up to finish off the match early, Darcis pulled off another winner,
however, Bolelli kept on his tail and levelled up, 2-2.
Serving for game 5, Darcis was brought down hard with a breakpoint win by the Italian stallion, 3-2, followed by a service winner next, 4-2. The higher ranked Belgian did pull back a game, however, was unable to break back and
end up the fixture any soon. With a magnificent serve-n-break next, Bolelli slammed the second set, 6-3, to level up, 1-1.
Firing up the decider, the Italian came up stronger this time. With a Triple game point winner in the opening game, Bolelli pocketed his first win of set three and stood to return. Levelling up next, Darcis did not make any mistake
and kept on the Italians tail until he broke in game 7.
Leading away with a breakpoint in the seventh game, 4-3, the Belgian staggered his competitor with another winner, 5-3, winning 3 games in a row and was now left with one more win to captivate the fixture. Cutting back the lead
to 4-5, Bolelli did pull back, however, was unable to break to level up.
With a superb forehand double game point winner, 6-4, Darcis ended the Italians run sooner than he thought. Winning away the decider and the match with a strong comeback, Darcis now moves on to the final qualifier of the Erste
Bank Open 2011 to play against compatriot, Maxime Authom, to battle out the main draw seat.
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