Yen-Hsun Lu jumps ahead of Robby Ginepri in his opening match – Farmers Classic 2011
Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu emerged victorious in his opening round encounter with American wild card entrant Robby Ginepri at the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles. The Taiwanese showed dextrous skill on the baseline and managed to close the deal expertly in under one hour and forty minutes with the score line at an impressive 6-4, 7-5. He now moves to the second round of the esteemed ATP World 250 tournament.
Despite sliding down to his current 370th position on the rankings table, the 28-year-old American Ginepri cannot be ruled out as a potential threat. The former world No. 15 holds three career titles as testament and Lu was all to vary of Ginepri’s prowess. “He just got back, but everyone knows he's a fighter," Lu said. Ginepri is currently recovering from an injured arm.
Taiwanese Lu had a faltering start to the season but his performance has improved marked since participating at Wimbledon. The 27-year-old Lu, currently ranked at No. 76, reached the quarter finals at Atlanta this past week.
The two players’ last met in Memphis 2010, where Lu had won 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Their head to head rankings now stand at 2-0 with Lu in a comfortable lead.
Both the players served excellently in the first set and were able to land two perfectly placed aces each. Lu serving at 68% took away 15 off his 21 first serves and managed to grab a spectacular 80% of his second serve points. Lu later registered a crucial serve break in the first set to send his opponent trailing. Ginepri was unable to successfully convert even one of his four breakpoints chances and the set easily closed at 6-4 in the Taiwanese’s account.
The second set proved to be more competitive for Lu, as the American tried fiercely to make an effective comeback. Ginepri swerved past a massive 9 of the 11 breakpoint situations that he faced, letting only two slip in Lu’s eager hands. Lu on the contrary was great with the serve once again and gained 16 of the 24 serve points while serving at around 63%. Overall Ginepri managed to amass a total of 38 points, just short of 10 points to Lu’s total of 48. Lu stole the set 7-5 from Ginepri’s fragile grip.
Lu will now face his third seeded challenger Marcos Baghdatis from Cyprus in the second round match at the Farmers Classic. Prior to this the two have played against each other in Kuala Lumpur 2009 with Baghdatis winning the three set match.
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