Daniel Brands struggles past Julian Reister to reach the second qualifier – Qatar Open 2013
In an all-German affair at Qatar ExxonMobil Open, the eighth seeded qualifier, Daniel Brands, overcame unseeded Julian Reister in a gruelling three-set encounter on Saturday. The world number 153 took one hour and 45 minutes to
brush away the solid resistance from his underdog compatriot, finishing with the final score of 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3, making it through to the second qualifying round of the ATP World Tour 250 event in Qatar, Doha.
Brands took off the contest in an aggressive fashion, imposing his authority over the game early. He raced through the opening set comprehensively and got one up in no time. However, tide turned in the following set with Reister
coming back very strongly. The unseeded German held his nerves in the crucial moments of the game and successfully bagged the second set to make it 1-all. He couldn’t sustain his winning impetus in the decisive set and fell terribly to his unforced errors.
Brands nudged forward to seal his convincing victory at 6-3 in the end.
Brands was absolutely phenomenal with his serve game in the match, delivering 79 per cent of it on target and belting 11 thudding aces to his opponent’s court. He clinched 44 out of 65 first serve points and cashed in six out of
nine break opportunities en route to victory. On the other hand, Reister bettered his opponent by winning 51 out of his 79 first serve points but could barely register two out of three break points in the entire matchup to finish on the losing side in the
end.
The eighth seeded German will face off against the Turkish contender, Marsel Ilhan, in the second round of the qualifying draw. Ilhan outplayed the unseeded Romanian contestant, Marius Copil, in a stiff three-setter, 7-6(3), 4-6,
6-3, to book a date with Brands in the second round.
The top seeded German, Tobias Kamke, also cleared the opening round encounter against the local challenger, Abdullah Maqdas. He took just 74 minutes to post an assertive score of 6-2, 6-3, to overcome his first hurdle in the voyage
to qualify for the main draw of Qatar ExxonMobil Open.
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