Steve Darcis shocks Nikolay Davydenko in opening round – Erste Bank Open 2011
Belgian qualifier Steve Darcis upset seventh seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko in a three set thriller at the Erste Bank Open 2011, an ATP World Tour 250 series event taking place at the Weiner Stadthalle from October 22nd
to October 30th. He made an epic comeback to register a 3-6, 6-0, 7-6(2) score line against the 30-year-old on Wednesday.
World number ninety-five, Darcis bounced back to overpower the seed, ranked fifty-seven spots above him in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, on their first meeting. After earning success at this two hours and six
minutes long match, he not only took lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against the Russian but also advanced into the second round.
The higher ranked Davydenko made a terrible start on the Austrian hard courts as he lost his blood in the opening game. However, he roared back by going on a four games tear before Darcis could hold on for the first time. The Russian
veteran held remaining serves to bag the opener with a 6-3 victory. He saved two out of three breakpoints faced and capitalised on two out of six breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
The frustrated Liege-born Darcis changed his strategy in the second set. He blasted massive groundstrokes and backhand slices to reel off all six games in a row to earn a bagel. The Belgian faced zero difficulty and converted three
out of four breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to clinch comfortably.
Darcis lost his track again in the final set and after gifting away two early serves, he went 4-0 down. The Belgian hit back well to level the scores at 5-5 and after exchanging another break, he took the set to a tie-breaker.
Darcis dominated in it to seal the decider with a 7-6(2) success. He saved only two out of five breakpoints came across but cashed in three out of five breakpoint chances to his advantage.
Overall, the qualifier showed exceptional skills as he hammered seven aces and despite clobbering a lower first serve share of 67 percent as compared to the Russian’s 78 percent, he registered an impressive 69 percent win on it.
Up next for the Belgian is a local wild card entrant, Dominic Thiem.
18-year-old Thiem upset his 44-year-old compatriot, Thomas Muster in straight sets on their first meeting. Ranked 1890th in the ATP rankings, the Austrian required one hour and three minutes to book a second round spot.
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