Thomas Fabbiano annihilates Borut Puc to advance in qualifiers – Croatia Open Umag 2011
Qualifying eight seed, Italian Thomas Fabbiano slew a local tennis star, Borut Puc with a bagel in the qualifying round of the Studena Croatia Open Umag 2011, an ATP World Tour 250 series event held in Umag, Croatia. He barely
broke sweat in the second set to register a 6-4, 6-0 victory over the 20-year-old Croat to advance in the final round of the qualifiers on Sunday.
22-year-old Italian put up a solid display of tennis to ease past Puc, ranked 466th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, in under an hour on their first meeting. After earning this victory, he not only
inched towards the main draw but also took lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against the Croat.
Both players played their best tennis in the opening set. Puc smacked four aces, registered a convincing 56 percent win on his first serve share and capitalised on the only breakpoint chance to his advantage.
The seeded Italian on the other hand outclassed the Croat in front of his home crowd. He failed to save the only breakpoint faced but converted both breakpoint opportunities to his advantage. Fabbiano got the coveted break in the
very first game and took the initial lead. He levelled the scores in the fourth game by gifting away his serve but broke Puc’s serve again in the ninth game to seal the opener with a 6-4 win.
The Italian went berserk in the final set as he bombarded powerful groundstrokes and forehands to reel off all six games in a row. He faced zero breakpoint but converted half of the six breakpoint chances to his advantage to earn
the bagel.
Overall, Fabbiano clobbered a better first serve share of 61 percent as compared to Croat’s 51 percent and registered a magnificent 76 percent win on it.
He will next face his fourth seeded countryman, Simone Vagnozzi who dumped Slovene Mike Urbanija with a breadstick to reach this spot.
Vagnozzi thundered into the court and bagged in four straight games before losing his serve in the fifth. He then won the last two games to earn the breadstick.
The Italian carried his winning ways in the final set and broke the Slovene’s serve in the very first game. He then held on to entire serves confidently and broke Urbanija’s serve in the fifth game again to seal the set with a
6-2 score line.
Overall, the 28-year-old Italian produced a higher first serve share of 58 percent as opposed to Slovene’s 52 percent and earned an impressive 79 percent win on it.
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