Florian Mayer prevails over Horacio Zeballos in the first round – German Tennis Championships 2012
Local player, Florian Mayer, booked his place in the second round of the tournament by ousting the Argentinean qualifier, Horacio Zeballos, in straight sets 7-6(7), 7-5 in his first match at the Bet-at-home German Tennis Championships
in Hamburg on Tuesday.
Mayer won in straight sets but the contest saw a tough battle between the two players. The German, who has captured only one title in his career so far, has the history of good performance at this event. He advanced to the semi-finals
in 2010 and reached the final-eight stage in the last season.
Currently ranked 23rd in the world, Mayer got into top form recently, as he made it to the quarter-finals at the Wimbledon Championships two weeks back. The German stunned the then 19th ranked Richard Gasquet
in four sets 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 in the round of 16 but he could not reach his maiden semi-final at the All England Club, losing to the defending champion Novak Djokovic in the next match.
Talking about his latest match, Mayer made a brilliant start to the contest, as he nailed a break in the very first game and held his following serve to attain a 2-0 lead. The German struck again in the third to go up 3-0 but that
advantage was short lived, as Zeballos bounced back to even it out at 3-3. Mayer claimed breakthrough for the third time in the ninth game but once again he failed to capitalise on it and drew level at 5-5. Both players held their subsequent serve to take
the score to 6-6 and force a tie-breaker. The German began with a 2-0 lead and stretched it to 5-2 at one stage but Zeballos fought back to square off the proceedings at 5-5. They went neck-to-neck till 7-7 but then Mayer grabbed a mini-break and finally consolidated
on it to win 7-6(7).
The start of the second set was quite similar to the first, as Mayer took a 2-0 lead but the Argentinean hit back immediately to level it at 2-2. The difference, this time, was that Zeballos grabbed two more games to build a 4-2
advantage. However, Mayer came back in style, as he snatched five of the following six and clinched it 7-5.
The seventh seeded player, Mayer, will take on the world number 42, Robin Haase of the Netherlands, in the round of 16.
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