Steve Darcis sends Mischa Zverev packing in 1st round – San Marino CEPU Open 2011 CH
Steve Darcis, Belgian, won his 1st round match at the San Marino CEPU Open 2011 on Tuesday, 9th August, against Mischa Zverev of Germany defeating him in straight sets. The 27-year-old Belgian trampled his rival in
less than 1 hour and 19 minutes. Playing at the Centro Tennis Cassa di Risparmio di Fonte dell'Ovo in the City of San Marino, Darcis ended the match effortlessly beating Zverev 7-6(3) and 6-1.
Playing each other for the first time ever, Darcis made a remarkable run over the German knocking him out with mere difficulty. The Belgian world No.102 has been at his best lately. Winning 8 out of the last 10 matches he played,
the 27-year-old once again was back in his form. The last 10 matches also included his win over Leonardo Mayer in the Trani Challenger final two days ago.
Surviving just one match out of the last 10 played, Mischa Zverev has been struggling with his performance these days. An inconsistent performance combined with mismatched court selection proved to be disastrous for the German
world No.117. Ranked as the former world No.45, Zverev was, surprisingly, also the 7th seed of the event.
Kicking off with the match, Zverev served and opened the set and the scorecard 1-0. The scores steadily rolled and levelled up at 2-2 and then on 3-3. Breaking each other one after the other, the two levelled up once again to 4-4.
The neck-to-neck battle finally went into a tiebreaker.
Darcis broke the German in the tiebreaker to bag the first set 7-6(3) and on to the second set leading 1-0 in the match.
The second set seemed more of an effortless win for the Belgian world No.102. The 27-year-old served first to open up the set and scored first, 1-0. Equalling the scores to 1-1, Zverev nicked away game 2 in no time. However, the
2ndgame win was the only win for the German in the second set.
Breaking the German twice in the next 4 games, Darcis stormed the set with 4 straight games taking away the set and the match from the German. The severe thrashing ended with a 6-1 score for the Belgian 27-year-old and a seat in
the 2nd round.
Winning 7-6(3) and 6-1 over Zverev, Steve Darcis now sits to play against the Czech, Jan Hajek to battle for the quarter-final seat.
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