2011 French Open: Leonardo Mayer battles past Dustin Brown to advance into the second round
Argentinean qualifier Leonardo Mayer rallied past German Dustin Brown in a four set thriller to advance into the second round of the 2011 French Open, a major clay court Grand Slam event held in Paris, France. 24-year-old was one
set down to win by 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-2 win over the German, two years older than him, on Monday.
Ranked 217th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Mayer took 154 minutes to overpower Brown, ranked 106, on their first meeting. After this success, the Argentinean took a 1-0 lead in the head-to-head
series.
Brown, who has recently picked up his form after making a semi-final berth at Rome Challenger earlier this month, re-ignited the spark in the opening set by smoothly keeping his first serve. He then held his remaining serves through
his awesome agility and saved both breakpoints faced. The German then converted the only breakpoint opportunity to his advantage to win the opener with a 6-3 win.
The qualifier got on track in the second set and despite capitalising on the thirty-two unforced errors Brown committed, he failed to clinch easily. Mayer exchanged a break in the set to drag it into the tie-breaker where he prevailed
and eventually won the set with a 7-6(5) win.
The Argentinean raised his level of game in the third set and outplayed the higher ranked Brown completely. He saved both breakpoints conceded and converted two out of four breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to pocket the
set with an assuring 6-2 score line. Mayer produced a higher first serve share of 67 percent as compared to German’s 46 percent and earned an impressive 78 percent win on it. He also clobbered zero double faults and only six unforced errors to Brown’s ten.
He maintained his momentum in the final set and played his best tennis. The Argentinean scored perfect near the net and converted both breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to win with a 6-2 score line again. He saved the only
breakpoint faced and committed only two unforced errors to German’s fourteen which led him clinched.
Mayer has had a monotonous form so far, though he recently made quarter-final berths at Blumenau and Santos Challenger events. He reached this spot through qualifiers where the Argentinean overwhelmed 30th seeded Austrian
Martin Fischer, Colombian Juan Sebastian Cabal and Czech Jan Hernych.
Up next for the youngster is the twenty-seventh seeded Cyprian Marcos Baghdatis who triumphed over Portuguese Frederico Gil in straight sets to reach this spot.
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