Ebelthite/Feeney drown Fransen/Van Der Meer in the semis – The Hague Open 2011 CH
Top seeded Australian duo of Colin Ebelthite and Adam Feeney stood tall in the semi-finals of The Hague Open Doubles, against the combination of Stephan Fransen and Nick van der Meer from Netherlands on Friday afternoon.
The competition was stage in Scheveningen, Netherlands, with the Aussie pair wining the match in straight sets 6-4, 6-2, to make it to the final of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour tournament.
The local hopes were crushed by the top seeded duo in the most authoritative manner, wrapping up the contest in just one hour of play. Ebelthite and Feeney were absolutely explosive in the contest and beat their opponents in every
segment of the game. Like any other doubles matchup, the Aussies kept the rallied short and professional, clinching elegant cross-court winners on regularity.
Ebelthite and Feeney were off to a decent start in the opening set, delivering 63 per cent of their serve on target and bagged 12 out of 19 first serve points to get the competitive edge over their opponents. The top seeded pair
broke their rivals’ serve in the very first game of the opener but Fransen and Van der Meer retaliated with the same a couple of games later.
The Aussies had eight break chances in the first set and they converted two out of them to reach set point at 5-4. A fiery forehand winner down the line from the racquet of Feeney closed out the opening set for his team at 6-4,
giving them a 1-0 lead in the game.
Fransen and Van der Meer slumped further in the following set, dropping serve early again and committing a number of unforced errors to bestow easy points to their opponents. The Australians’ 73 per cent accurate serve earned them
14 out of 16 first set points in the second set and they continued to exert pressure upon the bleak Dutch pair to force them to submit.
The Dutch failed to recover from the early loss they suffered by the serve break and kept spraying errant strokes all over the court. A second serve break from Ebelthite and Feeney proved decisive in the contest and sealed a comprehensive
victory for them at 6-2, giving them a title shot in the final of The Hague Open.
Ebelthite and Feeney will face either the second seeded fellow compatriot team of Rameez Junaid and Sadik Kadir, or the third seeded French combination of Olivier Charroin and Stephane Robert in the final of teh tournament on Sunday.
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