Florian Mayer secures straight sets win against Juan Monaco – German Tennis Championships 2011
Home favourite Florian Mayer delighted German crowds at Hamburg by securing a convincing two straight sets win against his 27 year Argentinean opponent Juan Monaco. The action packed one hour and forty seven minutes long match
guaranteed sixth seed Mayer a place in the quarter finals of the bet-at-home Open German Tennis Championships 2011.
The third round matches of the ATP World Tour 250 event witnessed all the nine seeded players through to the final eight except Fabio Fognini. Fognini was dismissed from the courts at Rothenbaum, Hamburg by second seed
Jurgen Melzer.
Currently ranked at World No. 20, Mayer has yet to win any ATP title but has maintained a decent 31-18 win loss record for the season. His clay court mark stands at 14-7. The German registered his best performance
this year at the clay courts of Munich, Germany where he finished runner up to Russian Nikolay Davydenko. Argentinean Monaco comes in with a win loss record of 16-17 and has shown some good performances in the past twelve months. Monaco had managed to reach
quarter finals at both Buenos Aires and Acapulco earlier in the year.
Thursday’s match was the two player’s sixth against each other and their head-to-head rankings stood at 4-1 squarely in Mayer’s favour. The two had last met at the 2011 World Team Championship, Dusseldorf with Mayer winning 7-6(4),
6-0.
Mayer served the opening game of what proved to be an exciting closely fought two set match. Both the players performed at their optimum and managed to remain on each others’ tails throughout the two set. The first set saw a bout
of superbly timed breakpoints, a total of 5 serve breaks were converted between the two players. Monaco converted two while Mayer bagged three breakpoints, of which one was recovered in the last game and proved to be decisive. The rigmarole eventually closed
at 7-5 in Mayer’s account.
The second set followed precedent set by the first and was as closely contested. Both Mayer and Monaco registered one serve break each in the opening few games of the set and quickly determined the nature of what was to follow.
The two players fought defiantly and scores like 2-2, 4-4 and 5-5 weren’t too uncommon. Mayer sealed the set once again at 7-5 by registering a break of serve in the very last game. Monaco scored a total of 34 points, of which 21 were service points and 13
return points against Mayer’s 42, which came from 24 service points and 18 return points.
Mayer’s quarter final match on Friday is against third seed Spaniard Nicolas Almagro.
Tags: