Begemann/Emmrich down Knowle/Polasek to capture title – Erste Bank Open 2012
German duo of Andre Begemann and Martin Emmrich captured their maiden title on the ATP World Tour by surprising the second seeded Austrian-Slovakian tandem of Julian Knowle and Filip Polasek 6-4, 3-6, 10-4 in the Erste Bank Open
final in Vienna.
Begemann/Emmrich and Knowle/Polasek started the encounter by holding their serve in the first two games and equalising the score at 1-1. The German pair was able to make a breakthrough in the third and consolidated on it to attain
a 3-1 lead. Begemann and Emmrich made sure that their opponents could not make a comeback, serving out the set at 5-4.
Knowle and Polasek got into a good position from the very beginning of the second set, as they captured opening three games to grab a 3-0 lead. Though, Begemann and Emmrich hit back in the fifth and won their next serve to even
out the score at 3-3. The Austrian-Slovak combination nailed a break again in the eighth and made the most of it to triumph 6-3.
In the match tie-breaker, Begemann and Emmrich made an ideal start, as they clinched five of the opening six points to attain a 5-1 lead. The Germans sustained their advantage throughout and grabbed it 10-4.
Begemann and Emmrich needed one hour and 33 minutes to post this tough win over their highly experienced opponents.
Expressing his happiness during the post match press conference, Emmrich said, “This is the big highlight of my career so far and I think it’s the same for Andre. Winning an ATP World Tour event beating many higher ranked teams
as the big outsider feels a bit unreal right now. The trophy shows me that we really did it and it feels great.”
The German player added, “We have known each other for more than ten years now and are good friends. We even lived together a few years ago. We went different ways at some point but got back together this summer when we played
club matches. We decided to play together on the tour too.”
Begemann was featuring in his maiden ATP World Tour final. He had not won even a single tour level match in either singles or doubles.
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