Gilles Muller upsets Alex Bogomolov in the opening round – Atlanta Tennis Championships 2011
Surprise for the local crowd on the very first day of Atlanta Tennis Championships, when the seventh seeded home favourite, Alex Bogomolov, crashed out from the tournament in the opening round at the hands of 82nd ranked
Gilles Muller from Luxembourg on Monday afternoon.
The contest was staged on the outdoor hard court of Atlanta, the United States, with the Luxembourger competitor upsetting the world number 63, Bogomolov, in straight sets 6-3, 7-6(6), in the first round of the ATP (Association
of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 tournament. The American hung in the game for one hour and thirty five minutes before he surrendered to Muller after a stiff contest in the second set.
Unseeded in the tournament, Muller displayed his tennis skills far better than his rankings suggest and concluded a comprehensive straight sets victory to get access to the second round of the Atlanta Tennis Championships. He had
absolutely no trouble in the opening set but had to go through some tough time in the second, eventually finishing it off in the tie breaker round to conclude victory.
Muller’s serve held the key to his success in the contest, as he fired 17 thudding cracking aces and clinched 25 out of 30 first serve points in the matchup. He struck just two serve breaks in the entire competition but they proved
sufficient to outplay the American competitor in a convincing manner.
The first serve break of the day was witnessed in the sixth game of the opener, when Muller drew first blood to lead 4-2 in the set. His serve precision was very ordinary, reaching merely 44 per cent in the set, but the Luxembourger
reeled off 34 out of the total 59 points being played in the opener. Bogomolov failed to recover from the damage being inflicted by the break point from his opponent and submitted the first set to Muller at 3-6.
A rather competitive second set was seen, with Bogomolov straining hard to bounce back in the game and dragged the game into a tie breaker round, which he eventually lost to bestow victory on Muller at 6-7(6).
It is the second time that Bogomolov has suffered a defeat at the hands of Muller in singles competition, the last one being at Tokyo way back in 2004, when the Luxembourger outclassed him in straight sets 6-3, 6-1, in the round
of 32.
Muller will face either Robby Ginepri of the United States or Tommy Haas of Germany in the second round of tournament later this week for a place in the quarter-finals.
Tags: