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Sock, Baker Ousted at Farmers Classic


By Chris Oddo
Sara Errani French Open (July 23, 2012)--19-year-old American Jack Sock fell prey to an older, more experienced opponent at the Farmers Classic Monday night, losing 6-3, 6-1 to world No. 93 Flavio Cipolla in one hour and nine minutes.

Sock held his own in the early going, but after holding serve to move ahead 3-2 in the first set, the American wildcard only won one of the final eleven games.

"I opened up serving very well in getting free points on my serve, which was what I tried to do," said Sock. "Then I just started missing a lot of first serves."

Sock registered his first top 100 win and his first ATP quarterfinal appearance when he defeated Alex Bogomolov Jr. in Atlanta last week. The Nebraska native then went on the quarterfinals before bowing out to John Isner.

But tonight, the world No. 263 had very little on offer against Cipolla. Sock won only four points against the Italian's serve in the second set, and Cipolla made matters worse by making an incredible 18 of 20 first serves.

Cipolla will face third-seeded Leonardo Mayer of Argentina in the second round.

Baker Stopped by Ram

Eighth-seeded wildcard Brian Baker also went down in defeat in the last match of the evening, to 28-year-old American Rajeev Ram.

Baker led 4-1 in the first set before Ram turned the match in his favor. After Ram tied the set at 4-all, both players held serve until the tiebreaker. It was Baker who blinked first in the breaker, as he surrendered two consecutive mini-breaks to trail 4-1 and never found his way back, losing 7-3.

Ram held on to close the match out in straight sets, despite a 40 percent first serve percentage, as he broke Baker two times, including the final game with Baker serving for a second set tiebreaker.

2009 Champion Garcia-Lopez upset in Kitzbuehel

Sixth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez was upset by Estonian Jurgen Zopp in the first round of the Bet-at-Home Cup in Austria on Monday. Zopp, who reached his first ATP quarterfinal in Bastad two weeks ago, also owns a 16-7 record on the challenger circuit this season with one title.

The world No. 80 broke serve six times today in the one-hour, 19-minute affair.

Elsewhere in Kitzbuehel, fifth-seeded Martin Klizan of Slovakia defeated Dominic Thiem of Austria, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5, while Filippo Volandri of Italy defeated his compatriot Allesandro Giannessi 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.

Qualifiers Attila Balazs and Antonio Veic were also winners on day one.

(Photo Credit: Mal Taam Photograpy)

 

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