Gilles Muller edges past Philipp Petzschner into second round – Moselle Open 2011
World number 49, Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, had to toil hard before he eventually took down the unseeded German, Philipp Petzschner in the opening round clash of the Moselle open on Monday night.
The contest was staged on the indoor hard courts of the Arènes de Metz, in Metz, France, with the eighth seed Muller winning straight sets 7-6(2), 7-6(5), in one hour and forty five minutes to make it to the second round of the
ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event.
It was an evenly poised contest with both contestants straining extremely hard to get the better of one another. The eighth seeded Muller adopted aggressive strategy right from the beginning but Petzschner equally met his belligerence
to move neck-to-neck with the Luxembourger. Both sets of the match ended in a tie breaker round, with Muller getting the advantage of the German on both occasions to come out as the winner.
Muller banged 58 per cent of his serve on target, firing eight aces and amazing reeling 46 out of 54 first serve points to outplay his opponent. Petzschner lagged behind with 36 points in the game but kept winning points on regular
occasions to keep the score board ticking on even terms.
The opening set was off to a steady start, with no contestants succeeding to register a serve break. Muller had five break opportunities in the first set but squandered away all of them to drag the set in to a tie breaker round
at 6-6. Petzschner lost his way in the decider and clinched just two points before dropping the opening set at 6-7(2), to let the eighth seed opponent one up in the contest.
Petzschner drew the first blood in the sixth game of the next set to lead 4-2 but Muller made his way back in the game in a couple of games to bring the mach on even terms again at 5-5. A tie breaker round was enforced for a second
time in the contest when the scores got dead locked at 6-6. Petzschner competed well this time round in the decider but a crucial mini-breaker from Muller closed out the matchup at 7-6(5).
Muller moved into the second round of Moselle Open, where he will face the winner of the opening round match between the French wildcard Benoit Paire and Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan, for a place in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
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