Vincent Millot wipes out Tim Smyczek in 2nd round – Charlottesville Challenger 2011
Eighth seeded French Vincent Millot defied all odds and thrashed American Tim Smyczek in the second round of the Charlottesville Challenger 2011.
After battling it out for a lengthy two hours and forty minutes on indoor hard courts of the Boar’s Head Sports Club in Charlottesville, Virginia, Millot came back from a set down to score 6-7(3), 6-2, 7-6(5) against Smyczek on Wednesday the 2nd of November 2011.
Millot initiated the set and both the players managed to hold their respective serves for the first four games and tied the score at 2-2. They continued their head-to-head run and kept the score tied at 3-3, 4-4 and finally at 5-5 with each player holding his own. During the last two games the players broke each other back-to-back and in doing so; the set was shoved into a tiebreaker.
Millot commenced the tiebreaker and he held his serve. Nevertheless, Smyczek not only held all his serves but was first to reach the finish line and clinched the tiebreaker at 7-3. He not only bagged the tiebreaker but also the opening set and had taken the competitive edge in the match.
During the second set the two challengers exchanged breaks in the first two games to place themselves at 1-1 on the scoreboard. Moreover, in subsequent two games, they held their serves to tie the score at 2-2.
It was in the fifth game that Smyczek was unable to battle through the deuces and eventually ended up double faulting on his serve. Mean while, his adversary and taken a mini lead of 4-2 at the end of the sixth game. Millot repeated the feat and clogged the second set by restricting his adversary to only two games in the entire set.
As each player had bagged a set apiece, the match went into a third set. Inaugurating the third set was Smyczek and he was unable to hold his serve. On the contrary, getting off to a great start was Millot and he placed himself on the scoreboard with a 2-0 lead.
For the following three games each player held his respective serve but Smyczek made a return by breaking back and levelling the score at 3-3 by the end of the sixth game.
During the eighth and the ninth game the two once more broke each other back-to-back and by the tenth the score had tied at five games each. As the two had matched a blow for a blow, the score was ultimately pushed into a tiebreaker.
The toe-to-toe series continued into the tie breaker and each player tactfully held his respective serve. Nevertheless, after a ray of holds and breaks Millot clogged the tiebreaker at 7-5. He sealed his victory of the set and the match.
Next up for Millot is Finnish Harri Heliovaara in the quarterfinal of the tournament.
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