Andreas Beck outclasses Martin Klizan in Round Robin clash – ATP Challenger Tour Finals 2011
An upset result was witnessed on the first day of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour Finals, with the sixth seeded German, Andreas beck, standing tall against the third seed Slovak, Martin Klizan, in
a Round Robin match on Wednesday night.
The contest was staged on the indoor hard courts of the Ginásio do Ibirapuera in São Paulo, Brazil, with the 25-year-old German coming out as the winner in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, to have an excellent start to the season ending
finale. The 90th ranked Klizan hung in the contest for just 70 minutes of play before submitting to the belligerence of the German in the second set.
The German competitor took off the current week as at number five in the year-to-date rankings after featuring four finals on the ATP Challenger Tour this season. He carried on his majestic form in the Wednesday’s encounter, dismissing
the third seeded Slovak in an authoritative fashion. Beck’s power ground strokes held the key to his success in the contest, so did his solid baseline defence throughout out the play.
“It was a very good match, almost perfect,” declared Beck in his post match reviews. “I felt very confident with my ground strokes. I knew I had to play aggressive against him because he’s a dangerous player and that’s why I won.”
Klizan evenly matched his opponent in most segments of the game but the only differentiating factor in the contest was the break point conversions from the German. Beck crafted a total of 11 break opportunities and converted four
of them en route to victory, whereas the third seed completely failed to register a single break point conversion in the entire matchup.
Beck got his first break through of the day in the third game and then held his serve to lead 3-1 early in the opener. Klizan held his serve in the next couple of games before throwing it away once again in the ninth game to submit
the first set at 3-6. Two more cracking serve breaks in the second and sixth game of the following set sealed an emphatic victory for Beck at 6-1.
Beck will face the top seeded home favourite, Thomaz Bellucci, in the next Round Robin matchup on Thursday night.
“Against Beck it will be a tough match because he is an aggressive player, so I will have to play inside the court and not let him play,” expressed Bellucci after winning his opening match.
The German needs to win at least one more match in the initial round to remain alive in the race to the semis of the ATP Challenger Tour Finals.
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