2011 French Open: Andreas Haider-Maurer, Juan Ignacio Chela clear the first round
Another surprise for tennis fans at Paris, France, as the 88th ranked Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria defeated the world number 70, Ryan Sweeting of the United States in the opening round of Roland Garros on Tuesday.
The Austrian took two hours and twenty eight minutes to conclude victory at 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-0, to make it to the second round of the Grand Slam event.
23-years-old American failed to put up a decent fight against the hard-hitting Haider-Maurer and his defeat marked an end to his French Open campaign. The Austrian devastated his opponent in the opening set but Sweeting bounced
back to clinch the next set in a tie breaker round. Haider-Maurer then gave no opportunity to the American and blew him away in the rest of the two sets to conclude a comprehensive victory.
Haider-Maurer converted his seven out of 15 break opportunities to up root Sweeting, who didn’t register even a single serve break in the entire four-setter contest. After losing the opener 1-6, Sweeting hung in the second set,
without dropping serve and dragged the set into a tie breaker round. He manoeuvred his way through the tie breaker to nab the second set at 7-6(5) and levelled the contest at 1-1.
The Austrian then shifted his gears in the game and completely blew away Sweeting in the following two sets. He belted five serve breaks in the next two sets to seal victory for him and a berth in the second round of the mega event.
Haider-Maurer will face 21st seed, Alexander Dolgopolov, who defeated Rainer Schuettler of Germany in the opening round of the tournament.
World number 34, Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina, was the other one to qualify for the second round of Roland Garros, as he defeated Tim Symczek of the United States in Teusday’s other match. Chela took merely one hour and forty
four minutes to wrap up straight sets victory 7-6(5), 6-1, 6-1, to dispose of the American from the French Open.
Chela’s 81 per cent precise serve proved too good for Symczek, who suffered eight break points in the matchup at the hands of the Argentine. 58 unforced errors were recorded by the American, who stood no chance against Chela with
such error-ridden game play.
Symczek hung in the opening set to drag it to a tie breaker round but failed to pose any resistance in the following two sets, falling apart in straight sets to let Chela away with victory. The Argentine will now face the 32nd
seed, Kevin Anderson of South Africa in the second round of Roland Garros.
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