Toni Androic battles past Thiemo De Bakker into the second round – Sibiu Challenger 2012
Ranked 384th in the world, Toni Androic of Croatia upset Netherland’s Thiemo De Bakker in three sets 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-3 in the first round of the Sibiu Challenger in Romania on Tuesday.
The Croatian took two hours and 33 minutes to claim victory in a hard fought match.
Androic and Bakker held their serve in the opening three games to take the score to 2-1 in the former’s favour. The Croatian contestant struck in the fourth and consolidated on it to attain a 4-1 lead. Bakker broke back in the
seventh game and won his following serve to equalise the proceedings at 4-4. There was no break of serve again in the subsequent three, taking the score to 6-5 in Androic’s favour. Serving to stay in the set at that time, Bakker was unable to hold and went
down 5-7.
The Croatian player gave a blended performance on serve, making three double faults and losing nine of the 17 points on the second deliveries. Androic managed to put in just 59 percent of the first serves but his conversion rate
was satisfactory, as he claimed 18 of the 24 points on them in the opener.
Androic and Bakker traded a blow in the first two games of the second set to square off the score at 1-1. The following six went with serves, levelling the proceedings at 4-4. Bakker grabbed a breakthrough in the ninth but he could
not serve out the set in the following one, evening out the score at 5-5. The set was taken to a tie-breaker, where the Dutch contender clinched a late mini-break and made the most of it to triumph 7-6(5).
Bakker fired three aces and did not commit any double fault, maintaining a first serve percentage of 65 and securing 18 of the 28 points on them in the second set. The 6ft 4in tall could not reply to his Croatian opponent’s first
serve properly, losing 16 of the 22 points on them but balanced by winning seven of the 14 on the second ones.
In the decider, both players held their serve in the opening four games level the score to 2-2. Androic sealed a break in the fifth one and held his next serve to gain a 4-2 advantage. The Croatian hit another blow to Bakker in
the ninth game to win 6-3.
Androic is slated to meet Denis Zivkovic of USA in the round of 16.
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