Berankis/Malisse take down Mahut/Muller to reach the quarters – Atlanta Tennis Championships Doubles 2011
An amazing contest was witnessed on the hard courts of Atlanta, the United States, with the combination of Richard Berankis of Lithuania and Xavier Malisse of Belgium, defeating the pair of Nicolas Mahut from France and Gilles
Muller of Luxemburg in the opening round of Atlanta Tennis Championships Doubles on Wednesday afternoon.
Being part of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 swing, the competition featured on of the most enthralling contests of the tournament so far, with Berankis and Malisse winning in a three-set thriller
to book a quarter-final spot in the tournament. They wrapped up victory by settling the final score at 4-6, 6-4, 10-5, to dispense out Mahut and Muller from the competition in one hour and twenty one minutes of play.
Both teams laboured extremely hard to come on top in the contest but Berankis and Malisse took the better of their opponents in the third set to clinch victory. They stringed their individual efforts together perfectly to drown
Mahut and Muller in the competition and carried on their voyage to the round of eight of the tournament.
The opening set took off with a trade of serve breaks from two teams, followed by a routine game to reach 4-4. Berankis and Malisse reeled off 15 out of 17 first serve points in the opening set, while Mahut and Muller followed
them with 11 points. The opener was heading towards a tie breaker but a timely serve break form Mahut and Muller proved vital in the contest, closing out the first set for them at 6-4.
Berankis and Malisse came back very strongly in the following set, breaking the opponents’ serve in the very first game to lead 2-0 and continued to hold the lead in the rest of the second set. Mahut and Muller failed to recover
from the damage inflicted by the early serve break and submitted the second set to their opponents at 4-6, levelling the competition with one set a piece.
Mahut and Muller couldn’t put up a good performance in the decider and reeled off just five points before surrendering to their opponents. Berankis and Malisse flew away with victory at 10-5, getting a place in the round of eight
of Atlanta Tennis Championships Doubles.
Berankis and Malisse will face the combination of Somdev Devvarman from India and Treat Conrad Huey of Philippines in the quarter-final battle on Thursday afternoon to make it to the semis of the tournament.
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