Denis Gremelmayr ousts Jarkko Nieminen; advances into the last four – UNICEF Open 2011
German Denis Gremelmayr stunned fifth seeded Finn Jarkko Nieminen in tough three sets to advance into the quarter-finals of the UNICEF Open 2011, an ATP World Tour 250 series warm-up event for Wimbledon. He registered a 7-6(3),
2-6, 7-6(5) victory over the 29-year-old Nieminen on Wednesday.
Ranked 110th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Gremelmayr downed the Finn, ranked 60 places above him in troublesome two hours and twenty-one minutes match on their second meeting. After earning this
victory by prevailing in two-breakers, the German extended the lead in the head-to-head series by 2-0 against Nieminen.
The Heidelberg born star confidently entered the opening set and converted both breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to edge over Nieminen. However, he was only able to save one out of three breakpoints faced and took the
set to a tie-breaker. Gremelmayr prevailed in it to clinch the opener with a 7-6(3) score line. He produced a lower first serve share of 51 percent as compared to Nieminen’s 79 percent and committed more double faults but he managed to overcome the threat
posed by Finn.
Finn, on the other side of net, made inroads in the second set as he outclassed Gremelmayr completely. Regardless of producing a slightly lower first serve share, he registered a fabulous 92 percent win on it. Nieminen held on
to his entire serves convincingly and converted two out of four breakpoint chances to his advantage to seal the set with an assuring 6-2 victory.
A former world number fifty-nine player, Gremelmayr found his winning ways back in the decider. Although he lost his serve twice, the German quickly counter attacked by breaking back Finn’s serves twice to drag the set to a tie-breaker.
He committed four double faults and produced a lower first serve share of 55 percent as opposed to Finn’s 67 percent but he registered an impressive 70 percent win on it. In the tie-breaker, the German dominated and maintained his lead to pocket the decider
with a 7-6(5) win.
The German hasn’t had much progress this season and this is his first appearance in a quarter-final round of an ATP or Grand Slam event this season. However, he made a semi-final berth in an ATP Challenger Tour event held in Furth
two weeks ago.
Up next for the German is the second seed and the wild card entrant, Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis who downed Dutch number one, Robin Haase in straight sets to reach this spot.
The 25-year-old Cypriot saved all three breakpoints faced and converted both breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to clinch the match with a 7-5, 6-4 victory in eighty minutes.
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