Kennesaw resident Robby Ginepri saw his hopes for a spot in the Australian Open tennis tournament dashed Sunday with a 6-0, 6-2, 6-1 loss to Jesse Levine in the finals of the 2011 Kia Motors USTA Australian Open Wild Card Playoff at the Racquet Club of the South in Norcross.
Levine, of Boca Raton, Fla., defeated Ginepri in an hour and 24 minutes, and won a spot in the year's first Grand slam tournament along with fellow Boca Raton resident Madison Keys who defeated Gail Brodsky of Brooklyn, N.Y., 6-3, 6-4.
Levine ran down everything Ginepri threw at him.
“I was just in the zone today,” he said. “I was just wondering after the first set if I could really stay with it. I wasn’t expecting to come out like that. I know Robby’s fit and in shape, I just didn’t expect to come out like that and was wondering if I was going to be able to keep it up."
Ginepri tried to change things up at the start of the third set, taking a restroom break and changing his shirt and style of play, starting the set by serve and volleying the first game.
“I was just hoping to win that first game,” Levine said. “If I didn’t I thought maybe he could get the crowd back into it and the momentum could change.”
Levine joked about the third-set restroom break. “He tried to ice me, I guess. It was a veteran move. It was a big game to win that first one for sure.”
Ginepri left without talking to the media.
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