2011 French Open: Marsel Ilhan registers first victory after beating Tommy Haas
Lucky loser from Turkey, Marsel Ilhan, got off to a strong start at Roland Garros by defeating the former world number two, Tommy Haas of Germany in the opening round on Monday. The contest was staged in Paris, France, where Ilhan
took down the German opponent 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(1), 6-4, taking almost three hours of intense tennis to book a place in the second round of the Grand Slam tournament.
The back-and-forth affair exhibited pro tennis at its best, with the two competitors straining hard to get on top of each other. The Turk drew first blood by bagging the opener in a convincing manner but had to suffer a set loss
to let Haas back in the contest. The German levelled the matchup after winning the second set but failed to contain the Ilhan in the later two sets, eventually losing the contest to end his voyage at the French Open.
Both men delivered their first serve with quite similar precision but Ilhan took the better of his opponent in terms of bagging points. The Turk competitor amazingly fired 25 aces in the match to keep the pressure upon Haas throughout
the contest. The German replied with 15 aces but 43 unforced errors, including seven costly double faults from his racquet proved extremely taxing for him and eventually wore him out in the competition.
Haas successfully defended 10 break points he faced from the Turk but still had to suffere five serve breaks in the match. The hard-hitting Ilhan secured 136 total points in the game, while Haas followed him with 117 points, to
conclude his opening round victory.
The opener was convincingly taken by the Turk competitor at 6-4, as he struck two serve breaks in reply to one from Haas. The German backfired at his opponent in the very next set and reeled off 16 out of 18 first serve points
to release the pressure. Haas registered his second serve break of the match to seal the second set at 6-4 and brought the contest back on even terms.
Both men battled long and hard in the third set to get the competitive advantage over their opponent. despite of 16 unforced errors, Haas dragged the third set into a tie breaker round after an exchange of two serve break from
each player was witnessed. Ilhan outclassed Hass in the tie breaker, sealing the set at 7-6(1) and continuing his momentum in the fourth set as well. The Turk eventually concluded the fourth set at 6-4 to book a berth in the second round of Roland Garros,
where he will face the 30th seed, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain
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