German Open: Defending Champions Simon Aspelin and Paul Hanley held their defence in Hamburg
Simon Aspelin and Paul Hanley outmatched the second seeded duo Philipp Petzschner and Jurgen Melzer at the German Open Tennis Championships on Tuesday. Simon Aspelin and Paul Hanley are the defending champions for the German Open Championships Doubles. The Petzschner and Melzer duo suffered a setback when the Aspelin and Hanley pair forced them to exit in only the first round of the Championship. German Open Tennis Championships are a part of the ATP World Tour Doubles championships which enter their 29th week. This week is sure to be a busy one for the ATP tours, as the much anticipated Atlanta Championships are also underway in Georgia, Atlanta.
The second seeds Melzer and Petzschner, who won the titles this season for the PBZ Zagreb Indoors and Wimbledon, crumbled to the Aspelin serves and couldn’t score many break points. The first set went well for both as the duo looked confident in their shots and forced Aspelin and Hanley to surrender the first set 5-7. The 15th singles ranked Austrian, Melzer, and 37th singles ranked German, Petzschner, proved their game when they scored some great points on aces. Taking advantage of their opposite duos’ weak breaking points, they took the first set home.
In the second set, the spirits seemed high for both the Melzer/Petzschner and Aspelin/Hanley pair. However, the latter proved too good for the former. With some very fine volleys they put their opponents under pressure, forcing them to lose some really crucial break points. This saw the Austrian/German pair suffer a straight set defeat of 6-4.
Paul Hanley is famous for his forehand and serves majorly. He had an advantage other than this here: the 26th Doubles ranked Australian player loves to play on clay courts. That is evident as he won his biggest tournament on red clay in Rome in 2003. He has also reached the semi-final at Roland Garros, another clay court expedition. His Doubles strength is known from the 5-2 Davis Cup record that he holds in the seven ties that he played. His Swedish partner Aspelin, on the other hand, is mainly a hard court lover. Coming to the opponents’ side, Melzer is a strong back hand player but not a very top of the line Doubles player, evident from his Davis Cup record of 17-27. Petzschner is a comparatively inexperienced player, and has played only 3 Davis Cup doubles ties with a record of 2-1. Coached by former ATP pro Lars Uebel, his strength comes from his baseline style of playing that makes his serves and forehand a force to reckon with.
Just when the situation in the game seemed pretty tight, Aspelin and Hanley, with some very strong aces, twisted the fate of the game to their advantage. In the third and the final set, Aspelin and Hanley were way more confident than their opponents. The victory, however, didn’t come cheap. The ‘newcomer’ Petzschner gave them a pretty tough time with his aces. However, despite scoring a total of nine aces as well as scoring tremendously accurate 30 out of 36 serve points, they couldn’t take on the extraordinary coordinated and confident game-play of their opponents.
Aspelin and Hanley, after scoring this victory, will go on to meet the French pair Jeremy Chardy and Paul-Henri Mathieu. They scored a victory against Johan Brunstrom and Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-7(8), 10-8 earlier. For Melzer and Petzschner, it means an early exit from the ATP World Tour. This defeat knocked them out of the first round of the German Open Tennis Championships, which are being held from 19th to 25th July, 2010. These championships will host 48 top singles players and 16 teams for the doubles ties. As one of the 11 elite ATP World Tour 500 stops, this will be held in Rothenbaum Tennis Centre, which has a capacity of 13,200 spectators. It is a retractable roof stadium and also, due to its huge capacity, the largest centre court in Germany.
Tags: