d**k Norman and Wesley Moodie won their second round robin clash in Group B after posting a convincing two setter win over Oliver Marach and Lukasz Kubot at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals on Wednesday. The final match score was 6-1, 6-3.
d**k, who went straight to the Fan Zone to practise his serve after missing three service breaks versus Nestor and Nenad, was confident enough to serve first in their yesterday’s match at the prestigious event in London. However the 6 ft 10 inch Belgian
blasted two double faults during the opening game and was broken.
Norman and Moodie rallied back quickly by taking six straight games and 20 of 34 points with a couple of groundstroke winners and attacking net play.
The Belgian-South African pair then broke Lukasz to 15 during the first game of the decisive set and maintained the benefit until the last game. On the final deuce point during the ninth game, Wesley Moodie blasted a strong backhand return off a Lukasz second
serve that Oliver netted.
Norman along with his partner Moodie, who is playing at the season finale Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the first occasion as a team, improved to a match record of 32-20 on the season by virtue of this victory. They posted their best result of the year
by successfully making their way into the semi-final round at the French Open as well as at the Wimbledon.
“We had several opportunities to bounce back in the decisive set, however they served quite well and the mix of their serves makes it hard to return. I take the responsibility for the loss.” Lukasz admitted after his loss on Wednesday.
Moodie and Norman, as a result of this victory will next take on Max Miryni and Mahesh Bhupathi on Friday in a Group B decider for the runner-up spot.
In other action, the second seed pair of Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor also made it into the semi final round after brushing aside Max Miryni and Mahesh Bhupathi in two sets on Wednesday. The final match score was 7-6, 7-6.
The second seed pair first reached the prestigious event in London back in 2008 where they got the better of Bryan brothers to lift the trophy.
In their third encounter with Max and Mahesh in 2010, Zimonjic and Nestor won the opening set in a tie break when Nestor fired a forehand return winner down the middle during the twelfth game.
In the following set, neither side was able to get a breakthrough however Nestor and Zimonjic managed to dominate in the final tie break and thus emerged victorious in the end. The meeting lasted for a time period of one hour and thirty three minutes.
“I think it was very close match. Both Mahesh and Max and us, we were serving really good, playing well on our serves. It was very difficult to get any chances to break,”
said Zimonjic after the match on Wednesday.
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