2011 Heineken Open: Qualifier Adrian Mannarino moves into quarterfinal round alongside top seeds
Qualifier Adrian Mannarino continued his ascent at the Auckland event as he secured a spot for himself in the last eight alongside the top seeds. Mannarino along with Nicolas Almagro, David Ferrer and twenty five other players is competing at the 2011 Heineken
Open in Auckland this week.
Playing his fifth straight match of the week, Adrian Mannarino played wildcard entrant Arnaud Clement on Wednesday for their second round clash. Mannarino had earlier competed at the 2011 Brisbane event though he was ousted in the first round by fourth seed
Mardy Fish. Mannarino qualified for the main draw at Auckland after defeating David Babul in straight sets in the qualifying final match. Having gained acceptance in the main draw, Mannarino was pitted against fifth seeded Argentinean Juan Monaco. Mannarino
was able to move past Monaco with much ease, enjoying a straight sets victory of 6-4, 6-3 in only seventy six minutes.
Moving ahead, Mannarino setup a second round clash with wildcard entrant, Arnaud Clement. Clement had moved into the second round after defeating 2011 Chennai Open finalist Xavier Malisse in their opening clash. Clement came into the Auckland event with
a 0-1 year-to-date win loss mark owing to his ousting from the Chennai event by Ricardos Berankis in the first round.
Although, Clement had never played Mannarino on the ATP Tour, the pair has played each other twice before in 2009 playing at the Cherbourg Challenger event and also in the qualifying round of the Rome Masters. Clement had enjoyed victories on both occasions.
However, this time round Mannarino got the better of Clement. Though it was a hard fought battle, Mannarino eventually enjoyed a straight, yet not so simple, sets victory over Clement. Serving five aces and losing seventeen of fifty nine points on service
(17 of 59), Mannarino was able to clinch a 7-5, 6-4 victory in almost two hours.
Mannarino now moves ahead to face second seed Nicolas Almagro in their quarterfinal match. Playing at his first event of 2011, Almagro received a wildcard into the main draw. Ranked fifteenth in the world, Almagro was seeded second in the draw due to which
he received an automatic bye into the second round. Finally kicking off 2011 on Wednesday, Almagro played Romanian Victor Hanescu. The Romanian had moved into the second round after playing 2011 Brisbane semi-finalist Kevin Anderson in the first round. After
a head to head clash between the two, Hanescu was finally able to do away with Anderson prevailing 7-6(7), 6-7(3), 6-4.
Meeting for the second time on the courts, Almagro was able to increase his head to head lead to 2-0. The pair had last met for their round of sixty four match at the 2009 Barcelona event where Almagro had defeated Hanescu in straight sets. Meeting on Wednesday,
Almagro and Hanescu battled for almost one hour and thirty seven minutes before the Spaniard eventually won the match 6-4, 7-6(3).
Joining Almagro in the quarterfinal round would be his compatriot and top seed, David Ferrer. Ranked seventh in the world, Ferrer had received an automatic bye into the second round. Playing at his first event this year, Ferrer officially kicked off 2011
playing Tobias Kamke for their second round clash. Hitting a minor setback, Ferrer lost the first set 3-6. However, the Spaniard bounced back in the second set taking it to tiebreaker and winning it 7-1. Moreover, Ferrer wrapped up his first victory of 2011
with a 6-4 win in the decider. Ferrer now moves ahead to play eighth seed Philipp Kohlschrieber.
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