2011 Heineken Open: Defending champion John Isner ousted in quarterfinals
In a surprising turn of events, defending champion John Isner was ousted from the 2011 Heineken Open in a seeded battle with sixth seed David Nalbandian. Isner officially kicked off his 2011 ATP Tour playing at the Auckland event this week.
Ranked 19th in the world, Isner started 2011 playing at the International Tennis Federation’s mixed team event, the Hopman Cup. Paired with Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Isner represented Team America. Playing his first rubber against Nicolas Mahut,
Isner sailed to a straight sets victory. His 2-1 win loss mark in the event helped USA reach the final of the event where Isner’s victory over Belgian Ruben Bemelmans secured the championship for USA.
Isner returns to the event for the third straight year after having enjoyed a successful run in 2010. Upsetting seventh seed Juan Monaco and top seed Tommy Robredo, Isner secured a semi-final clash with Albert Montanes then. Defeating Montanes in the semis,
Isner moved ahead to defeat Arnaud Clement in the final and win the title.
Seeded third in the main draw this year, Isner received an automatic bye into the second round where he met Robin Haase. Bouncing back from being one set down, Isner prevailed 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-5 to setup a quarterfinal clash with David Nalbandian. The Argentine
had moved ahead after defeating Fabio Fognini in the first round and then Philipp Petzschner in the second round.
Coming into the match, Nalbandian enjoyed a 1-0 lead in the pair’s career head to head score. Their only meeting so far had come at the Cincinnati Masters in 2010 where Nalbandian had won on account of Isner pulling out due to an ankle injury. This time
around, it seemed it was the arm that was ailing the American giant. Though he didn’t retire from the match, Isner still wasn’t at his best losing once again to Nalbandian.
Winning the toss, Nalbandian opened serve and won the first game. Both players continued to win games on their serves and failing to break their opponent’s, the score was tied for eight games. Serving for the ninth and then breaking Isner’s serve in the
tenth, Nalbandian clinched a 6-4 first set victory. Entering the second set, Isner and Nalbandian locked into a neck to neck race taking the set into a tiebreaker. Dominating the tiebreaker, Nalbandian surged into lead and won the tiebreaker 7-3.
After winning the match, Nalbandian said, “I think I played a good match today - aggressive; I did not serve very good but the rest was almost perfect. I think I played good, I am happy to win and I want to keep going the same way. Every single day here
is tough and you have to be ready and focused.”
Nalbandian now moves ahead to play second seed Nicolas Almagro in the semis. Joining these two in the semis will be Santiago Giraldo as he plays top seed David Ferrer.
Giraldo moved into the semis after defeating seventh seed Thomaz Bellucci in straight sets. Giraldo is the only unseeded player in the semis, having ousted fourth seed Albert Montanes on Wednesday.
Meeting Bellucci for the second time, Giraldo was once again able to defeat the Brazilian increasing his head to head lead to 2-0. Winning the toss, Bellucci opened serve but Giraldo broke through to win the first game. Serving for the next, Giraldo went
2-0 in the lead. Continuing to win on their service, the score was 3-2 before Giraldo took a run for the lead and finished the first set 6-2.
Coming into the second set, both players continued to win games on their service keeping the score tied till 4-4. It was only in the seventeenth game that Giraldo broke through Bellucci’s serve and clinched two successive games securing a straight set victory
and a spot for himself in the semis. Giraldo struck five aces and lost only 19 of 56 points on service to wrap up a straight sets victory in seventy eight minutes.
Tags: