Dennis Bloemke works through Thomas Muster in the opening round – Salzburg Indoors 2011 CH
After brilliant performances in the qualifying rounds, Dennis Bloemke of Germany continued his excellence in the main draw as well, defeating the local wildcard, Thomas Muster, in the opening round of the Salzburg Indoors on Wednesday afternoon.
The exciting three-setter was played on the hard courts of Salzburg, Austria, ending to the dismay of the local crowd as Muster lost his way after a good start. Bloemke took one hour and thirty three minutes to wrap up victory at 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, to book a place in the round of 16 at the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event.
44-year-old Muster took hold of the contest earlier but tended to be a lot sloppy in the later parts of the game. The Austrian veteran was beaten by Bloemke’s agility and pin-point hitting in the last two sets, forcing him to submit the matchup in the 94th minute of play. The German recovered from the one-set deficit with great mastery and once getting into his winning groove, the 22-year-old never looked back in the contest.
Bloemke fired seven aces in the contest but spilled out the equal number of double faults to eliminate his advantage. He secured 39 out of 47 first serve points, with Muster following at 33 out of his 41 points to finish on the losing side in the end.
The first break of serve came in the eighth game of the opener from the racket of the Austrian wildcard, who went on to pocket the set number one at 6-3. Trailing 0-1 in the contest, Bloemke came back very strongly in the following set, breaking his opponent’s serve in the fourth game and then holding his serve to reach 4-1. The German held his lead till the conclusion of the second set at 6-2 and brought Muster back on even terms in the contest.
Bloemke’s third break point conversion was nailed in the second game of the final set to give him a rapid 2-0 start in the decider. Muster failed to recover from the early damage from his opponent end eventually submitted the matchup at 3-6 to let Bloemke through to the second round of the tournament.
Bloemke will meet the second seeded French veteran, Nicolas Mahut, in the next encounter to battle it out for a place in the quarter-finals of the Salzburg Indoors. Mahut blasted his way through the opening round by taking down the other Austrian wildcard entrant, Maximilian Neuchrist, in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3, on Wednesday afternoon as well.
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