Steve Darcis rallies past Filippo Volandri into the quarter-finals – Open de Nice Côte d’Azur 2012
World number 61, Steve Darcis of Belgium, fought back after losing the opening set to overcome the challenge of Italy’s Filippo Volandri, ranked 81st in the world, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the second round at the Open de Nice
Côte d’Azur in France on Wednesday.
It took the Belgian an hour and 49 minutes to undo Volandri in a hard fought contest.
Darcis was looking good at the start of the match, as he broke the Italian in the second game of the first set and held his next serve to go up 3-0. However, Volandri did some amazing stuff later on, hitting three blows to Darcis
and capturing six successive games to triumph 6-3.
The Belgian banged in two aces and did not commit any double fault in the opening set. He had an average first delivery percentage and conversion rate, putting in 66 percent of the first serves and securing 10 of the 19 points
on them.
Volandri and Darcis started the second set by holding their serve in the opening two games and levelled the score at 1-1. The Belgian played near error free after that, as he bagged five of the following six games to seal it 6-2.
Darcis was impressive on serve, as he fired a couple of aces and 56 percent of the first serves, converting 14 of the 15 of them into points. The Saive, Belgium resident saved both break points he faced and converted the two he
received in the second set.
In the decider, both players broke each other once in the first eight games to even out the score at 4-4. Darcis struck the decisive blow in the ninth and made the most of it to win 6-4.
The Belgian hit a single ace and 64 percent of the first deliveries, bagging 12 of the 16 points on them in the decider. On the other hand, Volandri had a higher first serve percentage of 89 but managed to win just 16 of the 24
points.
Darcis will play third seed, Nicolas Almagro of Spain, or French contender, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, in the quarter-finals.
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