Thomaz Bellucci stuns Mikhail Youzhny to reach last eight – Credit Agricole Suisse Open 2012
World number 60, Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, made the biggest upset of the tournament so far by defeating the fourth seed, Mikhail Youzhny, in the second round of the Credit Agricole Suisse Open in Gstaad, Switzerland on Wednesday.
The Brazilian had lost the opener but showed great fighting skills later to win the three-setter 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in two hours and eight minutes to reach the quarter-finals.
Bellucci and Youzhny held their serves in the opening five games to take the score to 3-2 in the latter’s favour. The Russian managed to claim a breakthrough in the sixth to move ahead 4-2 but failed to consolidate on it, losing
next two games to level the proceedings at 4-4. Youzhny struck in the 10th and this time Bellucci did not have any chance to stage a comeback, dropping the set at 4-6.
Youzhny and Bellucci started the second set by winning their opening serve games and squaring off the score at 1-1. Bellucci hit a blow to the Russian in the third and capitalised on it to attain a 3-1 advantage. The Brazilian
nailed another break of serve in the seventh game and made the most of them to capture it 6-2.
In the decider, both players went neck-to-neck in the first half, equalling the score at 3-3. Bellucci struck in the seventh game and held his subsequent serve to gain a 5-3 lead. The Brazilian made sure that his higher ranked
opponent does not get a chance to bounce back, as he closed it out 6-4.
Bellucci performed exceptionally well on the first serves, as he pounded eight aces and captured 40 of the 51 points on the first deliveries. However, the Brazilian fared equally bad on the second ones, committing nine pathetic
double faults and losing 20 of the 38 points on them. The difference was made with his classy showing on the replies to Youzhny’s second serves, as he converted 24 of the 34 of them into points.
The Brazilian contender is slated to take on the fifth seeded Spanish player, Feliciano Lopez, in the last eight.
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