Tim Smyczek moves into main draws; steers clear of Alex Kuznetsov – Legg Mason Tennis Classic 2011
In an all American showdown on Sunday at the final round of the qualifiers at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, Washington D.C. fifth seed Tim Smyczek scored a resounding two set 6-3, 6-3 win against compatriot Alex Kuznetsov,
seeded at nine in the qualifying draw. The Washington Tournament has gained prominence as one of the eleven leading ATP World Tour 500 titles and is seen as the ultimate event in the run up to the commencement of play at the Flushing Meadows. Smyczek
is safely through to the main draws of the tournament.
The 23 years old American from Milwaukee, Wisconsin came into the tournament with a win loss standing of 3-5 hot on the heels of another US Open Series event at Los Angeles. He qualified to main draws in Los Angeles too; hence
this is his second time in the main draws of an ATP tour tournament in July alone. Smyczek however fell to American standout Daniel Kosakowski in his first round match in the main draws at Los Angeles. He won his opening round match against Austrian Oliver
Marach earlier at Legg Mason. Smyczek who is on the lookout for his first title, had previously played at Washington in 2008, where he lost in a first round qualifying match to Nicholas Monroe.
Fifth seed Kuznetsov’s performance on the ATP tour circuit has been plagued by a succession of misses. Till now Kuznetsov has been able to breakthrough to the main draws of an event just once at San Jose in February. He was sent
packing from the Wimbledon, his last ATP tour outing by Martin Fischer in their second round qualifying singles match. His current win-loss standing is 0-1 and he won his opening match at Washington against wild card Jarmere Jenkins.
Kuznetsov played the first game in the opening set and the score board quickly built up to the 2-2 mark with both the players fighting brutally. Smyczek then showed his prowess by managing to break his opponent’s serve in the fifth
game, limiting Kuznetsov to 30 points in that game. Smyczek served brilliantly at 75% and won 87% of these serves. He managed to seal the set in defiant style by breaking Kuznetsov’s serve again in the set’s last game to change the score board to 6-3 in his
favour.
The second set followed suite and Smyczek effortlessly won 6-3 again, sending a bewildered Kuznetsov back home. Kuznetsov couldn’t capitalise on even a single of the four opportunities that he had to break his opponent’s serve.
A confident Smyczek mercilessly took advantage of this weakness and registered a back breaking serve break in the second game of the set, to rapidly move ahead with an unbreakable lead.
Smyczek will compete against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov for a place in the second round of the main draws at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.
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