Cedrik-Marcel Stebe upsets Juan Carlos Ferrero in first round – German Tennis Championships 2011
Continuing with the tradition established on Monday, wild card entrant Cedrik-Marcel Stebe scored a major upset against his opponent, the seasoned Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero, a former world No. 1. Ferrero had resumed play after
a sabbatical this year in flamboyant style and just last week scored the Stuttgart title, his 16th ATP Title, by winning against Pablo Andujar. However, much to the delight of German crowds in the stands, Ferrero’s outing at the bet-at-home Open
German Tennis Championships 2011 was brought to a grinding halt in his very first match.
German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, currently at No. 168 on the rankings table has had a fairly successful year so far. He is at 20, the youngest player in the tournament. Stebe too was dismissed from the Mercedes Cup, Stuttgart by Pablo
Andujar in a quarter finals match. This match was the two players’ first meeting and Stebe now leads the head-to-head rank by 1-0.
The match lasted for just 76 minutes and Stebe scored a significant win 6-3, 6-2.
Stebe’s opening serve game in the first set was cut short by a brilliantly executed first breakpoint. However Stebe then torpedoed through the entire set from the point on. He fought back the breakpoint in the first game by recovering
a matching serve break in the second game. Ferrero’s serve was again cut short by Stebe in the sixth game and Ferrero was left trailing 5-2. Despite serving equally at 65%, Stebe managed to win the all important 14 of the 20 serve points. Ferrero was able
to save only 1 of the 3 breakpoints that he faced while Stebe showed superb skill by diverting 4 of the 5 thrown to him. The set closed at 6-3 in Stebe’s favour.
Motivated by his performance in the first set, Stebe powered through the second easily and bagged the set efficiently at 6-2. Despite a lowered first serve percentage of 50%, Stebe scored 8 points off his 11 serves while Ferrero
won 7 out of 17. Ferrero served at about 68%. Ferrero, who was visibly struggling through the entire match, was unable to even pose a single breakpoint situation to his opponent. Stebe cashed in on this weakness and scores two vital serve breaks in the third
and fifth games of the set. Stebe easily sealed the set at a triumphant 6-2.
The youngster Stebe will now feature in a second round match against eleventh seed, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia.
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