Granollers/ Lopez take down Kas/ Petzschner to seal tie win for Spain at Power Horse World Team Cup
To the dismay of the local crowd at the Rochusclub in Dusseldorf, Germany, the Spanish duo of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez defeated the home favourite pair of Christopher Kas and Philipp Petzschner in the doubles matchup of
Power Horse World Team Cup on Wednesday.
The Spaniard duo wrapped up straight sets victory 7-6(7), 6-3, taking one hour and thirty one minutes to secure a 2-1 victory over Germany in their second tie of the round robin stage.
Spain finally entered the winners’ circle at the World Team Cup by inflicting first defeat to Team Germany. Spain had already suffered a 1-2 loss at the hands of Russia in her opening tie of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals)
World Tour 250 event but bounced back strongly in the competition after the Wednesday’s contests.
The home favourite appeared invincible in the opening tie against Serbia, winning the competition by 3-0, but failed to replicate the similar performance against the crafty Spaniards. Florian Mayer gave a good start to Germany
by winning his singles rubber against Granollers but Philipp Kohlschreiber lost to Daniel Gimeno-Traver in the other singles match to let Spain back in business. It all depended on the doubles matchup, which the Spaniards won comprehensively in straight sets
to level bring the competition on event terms.
Granollers and Lopez toiled a bit in the opening set, which they wrapped up in the tie breaker round, but had no real difficulty in the next set to root out the German pair. They crafted 10 break chances in the contest and converted
four of them en route to victory, while the Germans cracked in three break points in the entire contest.
Intense tennis action was observed from both sides right from the beginning, as the competitors strain to get the better of one another early. Granollers and Lopez were very accurate with their first serve, reaching 81 per cent
precision and stung two break points in the opener. Kas and Petzschner replied with two serve breaks to create a deadlock at 6-6. A decisive tie breaker came into play and the Spanish duo closed out the first set at 7-6(7) to get one step closer to victory.
Kas and Petzschner couldn’t hang in much longer in the next set, as two serve breaks from the Spaniards proved sufficient to seal victory for them at 6-3. Spain finally gets her first win in the World Team Cup and will take on
Team Serbia in her next encounter.
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