Gilles Muller upsets Kevin Anderson top reach the semis – Atlanta Tennis Championships 2011
A huge surprise struck the tennis fans present at Atlanta, the United States, as the world number 34, Kevin Anderson of South Africa cashed out of the quarter-final of Atlanta Tennis Championships, at the hands of the unseeded
Luxembourger, Gilles Muller, on Friday afternoon.
Seeded second in the tournament, Anderson had an enthralling battle with Muller before the Luxembourger won in straight sets 7-6(3), 7-6(3), to qualify for the semi-finals of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World
Tour 250 tournament. The electrifying contest lasted for two hours and seven minutes, with both sets ending with identical scores in tie breaker rounds.
It was the seventh victory for Muller in the running year and the most emphatic one also. Anderson hung in the contest till the last minute but the belligerent Muller proved too good for him to contain. The two contestants exchanged
a number of assertive winners and aces in the game to prove their supremacy over each other and took both sets in to tie breaker rounds.
The opening set went on neck-to-neck, with both men battling extremely hard to get the better of his opponent and equally met each other’s aggression. Not much difference was seen in the overall statistics of both players in the
opener except the serve accuracy, which was 74 per cent for Anderson and 65 per cent Muller.
No serve breaks were seen in the opening set from any of the contestants and the score board kept ticking on even terms. Both men cracked in seven aces each in the set and dragged the game into the tie breaker round, which was
dominated by Luxembourger contest to settle it in his favour at 7-6(3).
The following set took off with a trade of serve breaks from both men to take the scores to 4-4. After another exchange of serve breaks, the second set went into tie breaker round and once again Muller came on top of the second
seeded South African to register his surprise victory at 7-6(3).
The last time these two men faced each other was in Newport in 2008, when Anderson stood victorious 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-3, but Muller’s victory over him now levels their head-head record at 1-1.
Up next for Muller is the third seeded American, John Isner, in the semi-final clash on Saturday afternoon. Isner was victorious against Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei in straight sets 6-1, 6-2 in the quarter-final round of the
tournament.
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