Albert Montanes recovers from a set down to defeat Benoit Paire at Barcelona Open
Albert Montanes of Spain fought a difficult match at the 2011 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, where he is seeded eleventh. The Spanish pro, ranked 27th in the world, faced World Number 121 Benoit Paire of France in his
second round at the clay tournament. The Spaniard recovered from a close set down to defeat his opponent, winning the match 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-4. Their encounter lasted just a little over two hours and one minute.
Paire is ranked outside the ATP Top 100 and barely made it to this ATP World Tour 500 event. The player could not gain direct entry into the 2011 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, and was forced to go through the qualifying rounds
to enter the clay event as a main draw participant. Despite this, he gave Montanes a very hard time in the first set, returning shot after shot to score two aces and break his opponent once. The player was only broken once himself. Montanes committed two double
faults which helped the French player’s cause, and he won the set by scoring two points more than his opponent.
However, Albert Montanes returned with a bang in the second set and took revenge on his opponent for the first-set loss. He did not score any aces, but defended two of three break points and saved both his break points. The player
also took ten points more than Paire, and won this set with a fry, 6-1. Benoit Paire recovered from the shock of Montanes’s attack in the tie-breaking set, and broke his opponent once in an attempt to make up for lost time. However, he was unsuccessful, and
Montanes converted 100 per cent of his break points against him to win the last set with four points more than his opponent. The final score-line was 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-4 for Albert Montanes.
Albert Montanes will be facing sixth seed Jurgen Melzer in the third round of the event, after the Austrian pro ousted Marcel Granollers in easy straights in his second round match just hours after Montanes.
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