Timo Nieminen outlasts Filip Vittek in the second qualifier – Slovak Open 2012 CH
Seeded fourth in the draw, Timo Nieminen of Finland avoided the meltdown in the second set to beat Slovakia’s world number 1483, Filip Vittek, 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-0 in the second round of the qualifying draw at the Slovak Open in Bratislava.
The Finn contender needed two hours and 27 minutes to claim victory in a hard fought contest.
Nieminen took control from the beginning of the contest, capturing opening five games to race to a 5-0 lead. Vittek hardly succeeded in holding his serve in the sixth to open his account and cut the trail to 1-5 but he could not
do anything more than that, losing the following one to throw away the opening set 1-6.
Ranked 367th in the world, Nieminen hit a single ace and also committed the same number of double fault. The Finn contestant maintained a first serve percentage of 61 and converted 13 of the 19 of them into points. The
6ft 1in tall put away all the four break threats he came across and utilised two of the three chances he created in the opener.
It seemed like Nieminen will close the match quickly, as he hit a blow to Vittek in the very first game of the second set and held his subsequent serve to attain a 2-0 lead. However, the Slovakian player broke back in the eight
to square it off at 4-4. Nieminen struck again in the 11th to go up 6-5 but Vittek hit back to level the proceedings at 6-6 and force a tie-breaker. Vittek gained a 2-0 lead at its start but Nieminen came on equal terms at 3-3. The Slovakian captured
another mini-break later on and consolidated on it to triumph 7-6(5).
Vittek banged in four aces but his first serve percentage was low at 51, bagging 20 of the 29 points on them in the second set.
Decider was expected to be a close one but it proved to be purely one-sided. Nieminen did not allow Vittek to win even a single game and won it 6-0.
The Finn national will meet the sixth seed, Andre Begemann, in the final qualifier.
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