Giraldo/Souza take down Haider-Maurer/Motti to reach the quarters – Suisse Open Gstaad 2011
An excellent start for the duo of Santiago Giraldo of Colombia and Joao Souza of Brazil in Credit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad 2011, as they defeated the combination of Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria and Alessandro Motti of Italy,
in the opening round of doubles on Tuesday.
The contest took place on the clay courts of the Credit Agricole Arena in Gstaad, Switzerland, with the unseeded pair of Giraldo and Souza winning in an enthralling three-setter by settling the final scores at 6-7(6), 6-1, 10-7.
Haider-Maurer and Motti fought for one hour and twenty three minutes of play before they were outclassed by their opponents in the third set to end their voyage at the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 tournament.
Haider-Maurer and Motti were off to an excellent start in the opening set and met the aggression of their opponents with great resilience. They bagged the opener in the tie breaker round but went through a terrible slump in the
following set to fritter all the advantage they gained earlier. Giraldo and Souza were phenomenal with their serve, delivering 63 per cent on target with just one double fault and reeled off 35 out of 43 first serve points to get the better of their opponents.
They clinched the last two sets of the matchup to conclude victory in a convincing manner.
Giraldo and Souza drew first blood in the contest by registering a serve break in the fifth game but Haider-Maurer and Motti retaliated a couple of games later to level the scores at 4-4. The opening set was dragged in to a tie
breaker round, which also went on neck-to-neck, before Haider-Maurer and Motti took advantage of a mini-break to seal the set at 7-6(6).
Giraldo and Souza made a terrific comeback in the very next set and broke their opponents’ serve immediately to lead 3-0. Their dominance in the game continued as they stung another serve break in the sixth game, leaving them to
serve for the set at 5-1.
With the contest levelled at one set a piece, a decisive third set came into play, with Giraldo and Souza sustaining their winning momentum in the game. They sealed victory by clinching the third set at 10-7 to get a pass to the
quarter-finals of Suisse Open Gstaad.
Giraldo and Souza will face either the top seeded pair of Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek or the unseeded duo of Michail Elgin and Denis Istomin in the quarter-final clash of the tournament.
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