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Vucic Celebrates Birthday in Style
 Ilija
Vucic celebrated his 17th
birthday in perfect fashion on
Wednesday, reaching the second round
of the $15,000 Futures tournament in
Texas in both the singles and
doubles competitions.
The teenage Serb, who came through
the qualifying competition in
Mansfield to reach his first Futures
main draw on American soil, moved
through to the second round of the
singles after his opponent John-Paul
Fruttero retired in the latter
stages of the second set with a back
injury.
He then teamed up with Henri
Kontinen, the Finn who is currently
on trial with the Monte-Carlo Tennis
Academy, to defeat fourth seeds Troy
Gillham and Ryan Recht 2-6, 6-2,
10-7.
“I’m very happy with the day,” said
Ilija. “We played pretty good and we
were dominating the match after the
first set. We started serving better
in the second set and we put more
returns in the court.”
In the singles against the No. 1
seed Fruttero, Ilija was just two
points away from defeat when the
match suddenly changed in his favour.
The American was serving for the
match at 6-4, 5-4 when he injured
his back attempting to reach Ilija’s
passing shot. The Serb won the next
five points to lead 6-5 and was up
30-15 when the American retired.
Ilija will now meet American Austin
Krajicek for a place in the
quarterfinals.
“We will take it,” said coach Antony
Hampson. “It wasn’t Ilija's best
performance, he struggled with guy’s
pace especially on the forehand but
the draw opens up a bit now and it’s
a big chance to get into some more
points.”
Meanwhile, Kontinen also moved
through to the second round with a
7-6(7), 6-3 victory over eighth
seeded American Adam Fass. Kontinen,
who also came through the
qualifying, now faces Vahid Mirzadeh.
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