Andreas Haider-Maurer defeats Ivo Klec to book his quarterfinal spot at the 2011 Rai Open
Top seeded Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria eased past Slovakian Ivo Klec 7-5, 6-3 to book a quarterfinal berth at the 2011 Rai Open in Rome.
Haider-Maurer looked to dominate right from the start. In very first game of the match he broke the serve to dent his opponent’s confidence level. The Austrian tennis-pro claimed his service games comfortably and pressurized his
opponent with some powerful and accurate serving. Klec broke back in the eight game of the set to level the game score 4-4. However Haider-Maurer regrouped himself and clinched four straight points on his opponent’s serve to take the score lead 5-4. He then
converted the first set point on his next serve game to take the opener 7-5.
The second set followed a similar pattern. Haider-Maurer made the first serve break and led the game score by 3-1. Klec bounced back brilliantly with a serve break but failed to stop his opponent from earning a well deserved victory
in a match that lasted for only 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Ranked 95 in the world, Haider-Maurer is the number one seed at the clay courts challenger event. The Austrian tennis-pro has been in great form since the start of this season. He defeated Matteo Viola in the final of 2011 Caltanissetta
to lift his first title of the season. Just a few weeks back he came up with another special performance at the 2011 Barletta Open where he lost to the Italian Filippo Volandri in the semi-final. Following his consistent performances at the international level,
the Austrian broke into the ATP Top 100 for the first time.
Haider-Maurer certainly looked to have carried over that form into this tournament as well as he displayed some crafty tennis in his first two matches. He executed his shots with confidence and achieved positive results. With his
aggressive intent he pushed his opponent to the baseline from where he had very few answers. Haider-Maurer serve was his real asset as he fired 5 aces in the match and converted nearly 70 per cent of the points on the first serve. With his strong defensive
ability, he was able to save few certain break points in the match.
Ivo Klec on the other hand made a positive start in the match but loss in concentration and high number of unforced errors made his game play very ineffective. Although he created chances for himself in the contest he was unable
to convert them and hence paid the price.
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