Thomas Fabbiano overcomes Marco Crugnola to reach the quarterfinal – AON Open 2011 CH
Thomas Fabbiano of Italy staged a marvellous come back at the clay courts of Genoa as he came back from a set down to register an emphatic 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 victory over compatriot Marco Crugnola on Thursday. With his impressive win,
the Italian has also made it to the quarterfinal of 2011 AON Open Challengers here in Genoa, Italy.
Fabbiano made a shaky start to the match. A number of his forehand and backhand shots landed outside the lines early in the match, which allowed his opponent to take dictate the score of the match.
Crugnola, who was well prepared for the match, made most of the available opportunities as he made his rival pay for his mistakes. Breaking his opponent early in the opening set, he took a very handsome lead. However Fabbiano broke
straight back to stay in the set.
Breaking the serve for the second time in the opener, Crugnola took a very tricky 6-5 lead to serve out the set. Clinching four straight points on his next service game, he took 1-0 set score lead.
Fabbiano made a sensational come back in the following set as he dashed his superb backhand and forehand winners all over the court to make the challenger run for his money. Breaking the serve twice in the second set and holding
on to his serve game comfortably, the Italian evened the set score 1-1 in great style.
Fabbiano continued to pressurise his opponent with some high quality tennis in the third and final set as well. Playing in the drops shots brilliantly, he surprised Crugnola every now and then to earn important points. With the
game score levelled at 3-3, he broke serve for the second time in the set to take 5-3 lead.
Saving a match point on his serve, Crugnola managed to reduce the deficit to 5-4 but he couldn’t stop his opponent from earning a well deserved victory in a match that lasted for more than 2 hour and 30 minutes. Fabbiano will take
a lot of confidence from this win and he will surely try to produce similar performances in the upcoming matches as well.
Tags: