Daniel Brands overwhelms Martin Fischer in opening round – Erste Bank Open 2011
Daniel Brands, German world No.182, outplayed his opening round rival, Martin Fischer, Austrian world No.213, in a hard hitting 3 set match at Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna. Battling out for 2 hours and 24 minutes on indoor hard
courts on Tuesday, 25th October, the 24-year-old German knocked out his opponent 6-7(3), 6-2, 7-6(6) to make it into the 2nd round of Erste Bank Open 2011, an ATP World Tour 250 event.
Met on clay before this, the two were on for their second head-to-head fixture. However, Brands already had the lead as he had defeated the Austrian at home earlier this year. With the two warming up, took their places as Brands
won the toss and served the opener.
Firing up the match, higher ranked German contender nearly lost his opening serve and rolled down the board, 1-0. Levelling up with a triple game point winner, Fischer won his opening serve and stood to return again, 1-1.
With the first few games finishing up slow and usual, the two levelled up at 2-2, 3-3, and 4-4 and then on 5-5 before the set went into a tiebreaker. With a tough hustle between the two ending up in a tiebreaker, Fischer captivated
over the German winning the tiebreaker, 7-3, and the set, 7-6(3) to lead the match, 1-0.
Continuing with set 2, Fischer served the opener; however, Brands retaliated and broke the Austrian in the opener. Serving out game 2, German 24-year-old extended his lead to 2 games to zer0. Gone crazy, Brands broke-n-served again
to lead the match with an amazing 4 games to zero.
With just two more games left to tie the match scores, world No.182 served out 2 out of the next 4 games to win the second set 6-2, finishing off with a triple game point winner.
Finally, with the decider set on its way, Fischer once again took off with the opener, however, this time he managed to escape with a winner, 1-0. Following up with a winner, Brands levelled up instantly and did not give away a
loose shot.
Winning games on respective serves both levelled up again at 2-2 and then on 3-3 before the two broke each other in game 8 and 9 and stood equal again at 5-5. Eventually falling into another tiebreaker, Fischer served first this
time, however, failed to capitalize this time as Brands overwhelmed the lower ranked Austrian winning the tiebreaker, 8-6, the set, 7-6(6), and the match with a mesmerising comeback.
Through into the next round, Brands did get his hands on the Austrian, however, his next rival is the fourth seeded, the destructive Czech, Radek Stepanek.
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