Anderson/ Isner, Melo/ Soares move into second round – Valencia Open 2011
First time pairing of American John Isner and South African Kevin Anderson moved into the second round of the 2011 Valencia Open 500 on Tuesday, 1st November after upsetting third seeded pair of Romaine Horia Tecau and
Swede Robin Lindstedt. The unseeded pair required only one hour and twenty one minutes to secure a straight, though perhaps not so simple, 7-6(2), 6-4 win over their seeded rivals.
Crashing out of the singles draw against Vasek Pospisil, Isner hit it big as he won his doubles opener at Valencia. Overcoming resistance from the seeded pair in the first set, Isner and Anderson were able to eventually seal their
straight sets victory easily in the second set.
Opening serve in the first, Tecau and Lindstedt comfortably made it onto the scoreboard. The American South African duo followed closely at their heels. With no breaks of serve between the two, the score progressed on even terms
eventually forcing the set into a tiebreaker. Although the seeded doubles specialists set up a break point opportunity for themselves, they could not follow through keeping the score on level terms. The toe-to-toe run between the two teams lost steam in the
tiebreaker. Holding the Swede Romaine duo to two points, Isner and Anderson rushed to clinch seven points and the victory in the first set.
The two hard hitting experts hit a resounding total of ten aces between them with no double faults. Hitting an impressive 81 percent on first serve as opposed to their opponents meagre 67 percent, Isner and Anderson clinched 52
percent of the total points to go one up in the set victory.
The second set followed pretty much the same pattern as the first set. The pair engaged each other in a neck-to-neck run on the scoreboard keeping the score tied for the eight games. The seeded pair created four break opportunities,
however, they could not capitalise on a single one of them. A costly double fault from Tecau/ Lindstedt in the ninth game gave the unseeded pair the mini-break they needed as they rode the single breakpoint opportunity to serve out the set.
Isner/ Anderson now move on ahead to play the local pairing of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez.
Also moving into the second round alongside Isner and Anderson, was the Brazilian team of Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares. Meeting locals Roberto Bautista-Agut and Albert Ramos in the opening round, the Brazilians took only forty
four minutes as they converted six of nine breakpoint opportunities to their advantage to destroy their opponents with a near perfect 6-1, 6-0 win.
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