Andreas Haider-Maurer eases through Jan Mertl in round one – Salzburg Indoors 2011 CH
Eighth seed in the draw, Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria faced no real challenge in dumping the unseeded Czech competitor, Jan Mertl, in the opening round of the Salzburg Indoors, in Salzburg, Austria, on Tuesday afternoon.
The local crowd witnessed a magnificent show of dominance from the home favourite Haider-Maurer, who took just one hour and sixteen minutes of play to wrap up victory in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, to match into the round of 16 of
the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour tournament.
The eighth seeded Austrian took the reins of the contest right from the beginning and never let the game out of his control till the end. Haider-Maurer wasn’t very precise with his serve but he dropped merely five points on it,
clinching 26 out of 31 first serve points en route to victory. He converted a number of apparent winners from Mertl into cracking cross court returns to earn some elegant points in the game.
Haider-Maurer crafted five break opportunities in the matchup and converted three of them to dispose of the Czech opponent in a comprehensive fashion. Mertl had break chances on six different occasions in the contest but was denied
every single time by the brilliance of his agile Austrian opponent to remain at a disadvantage.
Haider-Maurer was off to an aggressive start in the opening set, launching a series of forays upon his 29-year-old Czech opponent to bring him under pressure early in the match. The eighth seed registered the first break point
conversion of the day in the fourth game of the opener, racing away to a 4-1 lead in no time. Mertl failed to recover from the early damage done by his opponent’s break of serve and submitted the first set at 3-6 to fall on the back foot in the competition.
The Austrian carried on with his belligerence in the following set as well, breaking Mertl in the third game to inch closer to victory. Haider-Maurer stung his third and the decisive break point conversion in the ninth game to
seal victory at 6-3.
Haider-Maurer will either take on the unseeded German, Dustin Brown, or the Russian competitor, Konstantin Kravchuk, in the next stage of the competition to fight for a place in the final eight. Brown and Kravchuk will go one-on-one
against each other on Wednesday afternoon and the winner will meet Haider-Maurer in the second round of the Salzburg Indoors.
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