De Bakker/ Van Der Duim defeat Pierot/ De Goeijen in opener – TEAN International 2011
Despite crashing out of the singles draw in the quarterfinal, local De Bakker got off to superb start in the doubles category along with compatriot Antal Van Der Duim as the two defeated their compatriot tandem of Matthew Pierot
and Bobbie De Goeijen in the opening round of the 2011 TEAL International at Alphen, Netherlands on Saturday, 10th September.
The fourth seeded pair of De Bakker and Van Der Duim took a little over an hour as they secured a 6-2, 6-4 victory over their lower ranked compatriots.
Winning the toss Pierot and De Goeijen started the score as they held their serve to put themselves on the match. However, the seeded duo wasn’t far behind. Matching blow for blow the two teams managed to keep the scoreboard tied
for the first four games. However, things shifted in top gear in the sixth game when De Bakker and his teammate extended their lead to 4-2 after successfully breaking their opponents. Another hold of serve and a successful conversion of a breakpoint opportunity
later, De Bakker and Van Der Duim took the lead in the set score as they clinched the first set 6-2.
Down and broken, Pierot and De Goeijen tried to put up a fight in the second set as they successfully held onto their serves in the first four games, levelling the score at two games each. However, the pair could not maintain their
form as they were broken off a costly double fault in the sixth game to trail 2-4. Although they managed to hold their serve to reduce the deficit to 3-4, it was to no avail as the fourth seeds extended their lead to 5-3. Standing at 5-4, the fourth seeds
lost no points as they served out the set to seal their straight sets win.
De Bakker and Van Der Duim move on ahead to play the German Dutch duo of Jan-Lennard Struff and Stephen Fransen. Struff and Fransen met and defeated the Greek Irish duo of Niko Karagiannis and James McGee in their opening round
here. The victors toiled for sixty one minutes as they hit four aces and two double faults to secure a 7-5, 6-3 win.
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