Daniel Gimeno-Traver secures easy win as Marcel Granollers retires – International German Open 2011
Playing head-to-head for the 7th time in history, Marcel Granollers took on his fellow countryman Daniel Gimeno-Traver today, Tuesday, as the 1st round matches of the International German Open-Hamburg 2011
continued. The match was being played at the largest Court in Germany, the Rothenbaum Tennis Court at Hamburg. The Spaniard had equal advantage at the clay circuit. With fans rushing in the court, the match took off at 10:07 local time.
Granollers has a historic tussle with his fellow countryman. Out of the 6 matches they played, Traver won the first four from 2004 to 2007. However, Granollers took his revenge in the Morocco Tennis Tour final and in the qualifying
round of Internazionali BNL d'Italia to cut Traver’s lead to 2-4. This time he had his chance to continue his winning streak against, world No.69, Daniel.
And off went the match with fans cheering out loud. Gimeno-Traver, serving for the opener, served superb and opened up the score1-0. World No.47, Granollers, served to game 2 of the match and levelled the scores 1-1. The third
set did not seem good for Granollers as he pulled a strain in his right leg but yet he played on. Gimeno-Traver then served for game 3 and took the lead 2-1. The struggling Spaniard equalled the score in the 4th game once again to 2-2. Granollers
seemed to be okay by then but he never knew when things would go worse.
The world No.47 served for game 6 but did not quite hold on to his nerves as he lost a breakpoint to Traver. Even with his rival in a 4-2 lead and a strained leg himself, Granollers did not give up. The match carried on as Travers
took the advantage and came up harder that before increasing his lead to 5-2 after game 7. Granollers gave up a last shot at the game to make the score 5-3 however, the injured Spaniard could not continue after he lost the final game of the set.
The only set played ended at 6-3. Gimeno-Traver once again won in a head-to-head match extending his lead to 5-2.
Tags: