David Nalbandian defeats Andreas Haider-Maurer in the second round– Wimbledon Championships 2011
Former world number three, David Nalbandian of Argentina, continued to impress the tennis fans as he won his second round clash against the Austrian, Andreas Haider-Maurer, at the Wimbledon Championships on Thursday.
Ranked at number 23 in the world, Nalbandian displayed his vintage form to wrap up a convincing four-set victory against the Austrian at 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, to make it to the third round of the Grand Slam tournament.
Haider-Maurer hung in the contest for two hours and thirty seven minutes before he submitted the match to the hard-hitting Nalbandian in the fourth set. The Austrian dropped the first set in the opening 33 minutes of play but bounced
back very strongly in the following set to level the contest at one set a piece. Haider-Maurer failed to sustain the winning momentum and lost his way through the next two sets to finish the contest on the losing end.
In a low-serve game which followed, both men struggled to get their first serve precision right, as Nalbandian delivered just 53 per cent and Haider-Maurer reached just 56 per cent accuracy in the match. No great difference was
seen in the overall match statistics of the two men but it was Nalbandian’s knack of winning crucial points which made the ultimate difference in the game.
The 29-year-old Argentine veteran conceded 25 unforced errors in the contest, which include nine double faults. His mistakes didn’t prove much taxing as Haider-Maurer’s errant stroke play assisted the Argentine to recover and come
on top. The Austrian coughed 28 unforced errors in the game, committing seven double faults and firing 13 aces as well.
Nalbandian had 18 opportunities to break the opponent’s serve in the matchup but he cashed in just four of those chances en route to victory. He successfully defended six out of eight break points he faced from Haider-Maurer before
sealing the contest.
The Austrian bounced back in the second set after dropping the opener early and stunned the dominating Argentine with two crafty serve breaks to seal the set at 6-3. Nalbandian then launched a series of attacking moves in the following
sets to push Haider-Maurer out of the competition, breaking him once in each set to register his 12th victory of the running year.
Nalbandian enters the third round of the Wimbledon Championships, where he will face the six-time champion, Roger Federer of Switzerland for a place in the fourth round. The third seed Federer blasted his way into the third round
after devastating Frenchman, Adrian Mannarino in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.
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