Kratochvil stuns Clement

Kratochvil needed to dig deep for Thursday's victory Keystone

Swiss number two Michel Kratochvil has reached the quarter-finals of the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament in Basel with a highly dramatic win over French fifth seed Arnaud Clement.

The 22-year-old from Bern made a fantastic start against the world number 13, taking the first set 6-3 in less than half an hour.

Clement began to show his class in the second set though, twice breaking the 22-year-old from Bern to clinch the set 6-1.

Clement maintained the upper hand as the deciding set got underway. After missing two break point chances in the third game, the Frenchman made no such mistake in the fifth, playing an exquisite drop shot to go 3-2 up with serve.

Great running play

The young Swiss then managed to level the score at 4-4 after some great running play in the eighth game. But just moments later, he seemed to have blown his big chance, netting at break point on his own serve to see Clement 5-4 up and serving for the set.

But after successfully defending one match point, Kratochvil went back on the offensive winning an advantage point which he promptly converted with a brilliant winning return of serve.

With the scoreline even again at 5-5, Kratochvil saw off another two break points to sneak into a 6-5 lead.

The drama had hardly begun, though. With Clement holding serve in the final game, the match was taken into a deciding tie-break.

Brink of defeat

Once again Kratochvil was to hover on the brink of defeat before finding his way to victory. With the score at 5-3 in his opponent’s favour, the rising Swiss star netted a crucial-seeming forehand to present Clement with another three match points.

The first was wasted by the Frenchman with an unforced error into the net. The second had to be seen to be believed though, with Kratochvil whipping an audacious return deep past Clement and narrowly inside the tramline.

With Kratochvil back on serve, Clement overhit the ball to squander what was to be his last match point opportunity. A further wild strike by the Frenchman on the next point finally handed the Swiss his first match point.

The moment seemed right for Kratochvil to at last end the Basel crowd’s suffering. One short rally and another Clement mishit saw the man from Bern clinch the unlikeliest of victories.

by Mark Ledsom, Basel