Timo Nieminen makes into main draw; ousts Mischa Zverev in final qualifier – IPP Open 2011 CH
Timo Nieminen, Finn world No.213, ran over his final round counterpart of IPP Open 2011 qualifier stage, Mischa Zverev, German world no.343, beating him down in straight sets, 7-6(2), 6-1, in an hour and 29 minutes of Indoor hard circuit rallying on Sunday,
20th of November 2011 at Tali, Helsinki, Finland.
Walking down the blue circuit, the two competitors took their sides as Nieminen won the toss and ignited the fixture. Serving out his first serve of the set, Finn rolled down his side of the scoreboard winning, 1-0. Following the veteran Finn, Zverev knocked
out his opening serve evening up the scores, 1-1.
Continuing with the fixture, the two blazed out back-to-back break points. Zverev first broke his rival game three, broke down in fourth, broke back in fifth and lost his serve in game six to level up the scores 3-3. Winning games of respective serves next,
the scores levelled up at 4-4 and then on 5-5, before the two won one game each to move on to a tiebreaker set.
Zverev took the opening point; however, German higher ranked could not make the most of it. Reigning over the German Nieminen mustered away with the tiebreaker winning 7-2, and the set, 7-6(2), to lead the match, 1-0. Finn completed the first set run bagging
33 service points and 25 returners, totalling 58 points at the end.
Moving on with set two, the two fired up on each other as soon as the set started. Zverev served to open the set; however, the Finn broke early and took the lead. It did not take Zverev much time to break back, game two, and level up the scores, 1-1.
Nieminen went from good to excellent and from excellent to marvellous as he broke back right away, 2-1, and served out a winner to extend his lead to 3-1. Beating the German was not over yet. Hoping to cut down the lead, Zverev was knocked down constantly
as Nieminen broke again in game five, 4-1, and served out another winner to lead 5-1.
With one more game left to finish off the set and the fixture, Nieminen blew away the final game, game seven with a spectacular breakpoint winner concluding the fixture with a 6-1 second set run and winning in straight sets.
Winning the final round of the IPP Open 2011 qualifier stage, An ATP Challenger Tour event, Nieminen made his way into the main draws of the event. However, will play the German once again as he has made it to the main draw as well as a lucky looser.
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