Daniel Gimeno-Traver stuns Victor Hanescu in the opening round – Mutua Madrid Open 2012
Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain played a classic three-setter with the 30-year-old Romanian, Victor Hanescu, on Monday. In the first round clash of the Mutua Madrid Open, the 137th ranked Spaniard inched ahead 7-6(3),
4-6, 6-3 to book a spot in the second round of the tournament.
Both players fought for almost two hours and 24 minutes before the inferior ranked local managed to level the head-to-head scores to 2-2. It was a gruelling encounter featuring all sorts of shots and the level of energy at the
court was stupendous.
In the opening set, both players capitalized on their serves. Both players was tested rigorously at least on two different occurrences in the set but they survived the threat and enforced a tie-breaker round into play.
It was all about handling pressure and the support from the crowd helped Traver to register an early mini-break that proved to be the foundation of the late winner to sneak a set for the Spaniard.
The second set started in the similar fashion as the first before the visitor broke serve for the first time in the match to take a lead. Hanescu exerted a substantial amount of pressure on his opponent by bagging the following
serve game and extending the lead to 3-1.
It was the only occasion in the set when a player successfully broke serve. Rest of the games were dull and boring featuring small rallies. Crowd was getting a bit agitated by the manner of play, it was getting a bit monotonous
at the middle.
A cautious start to the final set witnessed a similar see-saw battle between the two players. However, the local broke the shackles in the eighth game to take a lead of 5-3 and earned a golden opportunity to win the match. He dropped
two points in the final game but stayed focused and clinched the triumph that delighted the crowd.
It was the first upset of the day and Traver marches on into the second round of the tournament. He will lock horns with the reigning world number one, Novak Djokovic, who will start his Madrid Open campaign on Tuesday having received
a Bye in the opening round.
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