Albert Ramos, Juan Carlos Ferrero make it to the quarterfinal –
Studena Croatia Open 2011
Spanish tennis pro Albert Ramos continued his great run on the red surface as he secured a thumping 6-1, 6-3 victory over Gianluca Naso of Italy on Wednesday to advance into the quarterfinal of 2011 ATP Studena Croatia Open in
Umag.
Ramos looked in superb touch in his previous match at the Association of Tennis Professional’s tournament. He seemed to have carried over that winning momentum into the second round play as well as he required only 1 hour and 13
minutes dispatching his rival.
Looking to pressurise the challenger, Ramos made a solid start to the match. Breaking the serve regularly in the opening set, he put himself in the driving set. Converting his second break chance in fifth game of the set, he earned
an impassable 4-1 lead in the match. Under pressure, Naso started to make a lot of unforced errors including few costly double faults. Ramos kept his game intensity high and made his third break of the set to take the set score lead.
Naso, who struggled to get any sort of timing on his shots what so ever in the opening set, put up a better show in the following set. Holding on to his first three serve games, he looked for an entry back into the match. However,
Ramos concentrated on his own game play and converted one of the break chances to take a crucial 5-3 lead in the set, serving for the match. Clinching four straight points on his opponent serve, the Spaniard completed his straight sets victory in great style.
Ramos’s well directed and accurate serving proved to be the main difference between the two players in the match. He hit an impressive 63 per cent first serve as compared to only 51 per cent managed by his opponent. Firing four
serve aces in the match, he got out of trouble using his deadly weapon. Saving all four break points against himself, Ramos had an incredible defensive strategy. World number 82 has been in decent form over the last few months. He will be hoping to give similar
results in his next match-up as well.
Meanwhile another Spanish player Juan Carlos Ferrero upset number three seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 to book his place in last eight of the tournament.
Ljubicic made a bright start but as the match progressed, his shine faded away. Taking crucial blows in second and third sets in the match, the Croat went into a defensive mode. Ferrero took complete advantage of Ljubicic’s errors
and held on to his serve games to record a major upset at the ATP tournament.
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