2011 Heineken Open: Top seed David Ferrer breezes into final
Top seed David Ferrer of Spain reached the final of the 2011 Heineken Open on Friday.
The Spaniard overpowered his Colombian opponent Santiago Giraldo in two sets to book his place in the title battle. He won 6-3, 7-5 in 74 minutes.
Ferrer will now face former world number three David Nalbandian in the final on Saturday. While commenting on his final showdown against Nalbandian, Ferrer said, “He has played unbelievable this week.”
The Spaniard, after winning his semi-final match against Giraldo, also improved his win-loss record to 15-5 on the tour. Saturday’s title battle will be the 20th overall final of his career.
Giraldo, who is currently ranked number 64 in the world, earlier reached the semis after dismissing Albert Montanes and Thomaz Bellucci on his way. However, the right-hander did not at all look confident in his Friday’s semi-final against Ferrer.
Ferrer, on the other hand, stepped on the court confidently and fired forehands consistently to cruise past Giraldo who was competing in his career’s first ATP final-four round. The Spaniard broke his opponent’s serve during the eight game of the opening
set. However, Giraldo did not give up and thus put up a good fight before eventually losing the set 3-6.
The decisive set did not change the story for Giraldo as Ferrer quickly earned a lead of 2-0. The Colombian however did well to bounce back during the sixth game and thus secured a lead of 4-3. The hard-hitting Ferrer in the end managed to break back late
in the second set to wrap up the match at the Tennis Centre in Auckland.
After Saturday’s title battle, both Ferrer and Nalbandian will head to Melbourne to play at the first grand slam of 2011, the Australian Open, which gets underway from Monday. The Spaniard will begin his tournament’s campaign against Jarkko Nieminen whereas
Nalbandian will meet Lleyton Hewitt in his first round match.
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