Florian Mayer defeats Andrey Golubev in the opening round of Internazionali BNL d'Italia
Germany’s Florian Mayer was amazingly upbeat in his first round clash at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy when he defeated Russian Andrey Golubev on Saturday. The 27-year-old German played some spectacular tennis to win 6-4, 6-3
and move into the second round where he will face flamboyant Austrian Jurgen Melzer for a place in the third round of the tournament.
Mayer appeared to be toying with the Russian and never looked nervous during the match. He already knew his opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and didn’t allow him to get the hook by making errors himself. The Russian made Mayer’s
match everything but easy. Golubev played well in the early part of the match but once Mayer found his footing it became increasingly more and more difficult for the Russian to find a way past the German.
Mayer looked a bit in trouble in the very first stage of the set, falling behind 0-2. But from then on the German pro started mixing things up and upped his level to break back. A series of attacks and first serves saved the German
pro in the right moment. He scored 68 percent of points on his first serves and 56 percent of points on his second serves. He managed to secure one of the two break points and finally the opening set with a 6-4 score. Golubev saw plenty of break-chances in
the set but failing to make good use of any of them, he allowed his opponent to take the lead 0-1.
Mayer acquitted himself very well and took a 3-0 lead in the second set, but then simply committed way too many unforced errors and eventually dropped the set. The German player showed no fear in the second set, playing persistence
tennis. Florian went up to break Golubev’s serve with his first break point, going 3-1 up in the final set. Golubev didn’t find his way back after that, as Florian displayed his brilliant tennis skills to serve out the match. Mayer was broken on three occasions
but perfectly maneuvered the Russian round the court with his shots that Golubev had no response to. Golubev’s poor serving couldn’t help him, who put only 55 percent of balls into play to suggest he was easily outplayed with a 6-3 score in the final set.
Mayer put in an incredible mental effort, scoring an amazing 66 percent on his service, 47 percent on return and 55 percent of the points in total. It was totally a well deserving win with some powerful serving which totally pinned
Golubev behind his base line. The Russian played as hard as he could but lagged behind with a meagre difference of four points and lost the match in straight sets. As a matter of fact he served incompetently and didn’t have a good read of his opponent’s mind.
With this win, the German has improved his win loss mark to 21-12 matches since January.
Tags: