Albert Ramos edges past Lukas Rosol into the quarter-finals – German Tennis Championships 2012
World number 46, Albert Ramos of Spain, pulled a hard fought win against Czech Republic’s rising star, Lukas Rosol, in the second round of the Bet-at-home Open German Tennis Championships in Hamburg on Wednesday.
After winning the opener with the closest of margins, Ramos lost the second set but bounced back in the decider to triumph 7-6(8), 4-6, 6-3 in two hours and 31 minutes.
The Czech contender had fought back from a trail of one set to surprise the eighth seeded Serbian, Viktor Troicki, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the previous encounter at this event.
Rosol has the habbit of playing a very good match in an event but fails to carry on his form in the following one. He stunned the title favourite, Rafael Nadal, in the second round of Wimbledon but got thrashed by Kohlschreiber
in straight sets in the round of 32. Last week, he upset the world number 42, Robin Haase of the Netherlands, in the opening round but lost easily in the following match.
Coming back to the recent match, Ramos and Rosol did not lose their serve throughout the first set to take the score to 6-6 and force a tie-breaker. Both players fought closely to level the score at 8-8 but Ramos succeeded in winning
two consecutive points after that, winning it 7-6(8).
The Spanish contender was near to ending the contest, as he struck in the fourth game and held his following serve to go up 4-1. However, Lukas played the way he had done against Nadal at the Wimbledon, banging winner after winner
to clinch five games in a row and triumph 6-4.
Rosol and Ramos won their serve in the opening seven games of the decider to take the score to 4-3 in the former’s favour. The Spanish player made the decisive breakthrough in the eighth and capitalised on it to win 6-3.
Ramos bombarded five aces on Rosol but lost the advantage, as he also committed the same number of double faults in the match.
The Spaniard will meet the winner of the match between Marin Cilic and Federico Delbonis in the quarter-finals.
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