Xavier Malisse rallies out Lukas Lacko in opening match – Mons Challenger 2011
Xavier Malisse, world No.48 and top seeded for the Mons Challenger 2011, outplayed his 1st round challenger, Lukas Lacko, Slovakian world No.126, in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 in just an hour and 30 minutes. Playing at the
Greenset Grand Prix hard court on Tuesday, 4th October , the top seed one handed the fixture outgunning the Slovakian and moving on to make his way into the 2nd stage.
Comparatively, the disparity in ranking and experience predicted an obvious win for the top seed. With the fans cheering up for their player, the world No.48, the two proceeded to take their positions with the home player firing
off with the opener.
Serving up first was the top seed, Malisse. Rolling down the scoreboard first, the world No.48 secured his first win of the match winning, 1-0. Following up with the top seeded, Lacko pulled off his first win of the set and levelled
up with the Belgian, 1-1.
With the two rallying out respective games, levelled up at 2-2, 3-3 and then at 4-4. Moving on, Malisse served next for game 9, winning and taking the lead before he struck to finish off the set. Breaking the world No.126, the
31-year-old old blistered his young counterpart pocketing the set 6-4 and stood to serve again in the 2nd round.
With the first set in his bag, the Belgian world No.48 went off with a flyer 3 game point in the first game of set 2. Lacko did level up at the start, 1-1, however, could not hold a strong defence against the fiery top seed. Malisse
served out next, game 3, and broke the world No.126 in game 4 to lead the set 3-1.
Leading on, the 31-year-old grabbed another win swirling away with the 5th game of the set and switched back the serve. Lacko served out game 6 and attempted to break the world No.48, however, was unable to breach the
Belgian rock solid defence.
Serving out 2 out of the next three games, Malisse documented his win over the young 23-year-old Slovakian with a straight set 6-4, 6-3 victory to move onto the next round of the Mons Challenger 2011.
Statistically, Lacko had a greater accuracy but could not curtain much points of his 1st serve. On the other hand, winning 89 percent of his 1st serve points Malisse stormed his rival effortlessly. With 41
service points and 30 returners, the local lag totalled 71 points against 55 of Lacko to win his way into the next stage.
Winning his way into the 2nd round of the ATP Challenger tour, Malisse will now blast-off against Columbian, Alejandro Falla to clash out for the quarter-final round seat.
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