Haas/Melzer shock Fyrstenberg/Matkowski in opening round – China Open 2012
German-Austrian contender, Tommy Haas and Jurgen Melzer, stunned the Polish power, Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski, in straight sets at the China Open 2012 on Wednesday. They jolted down a 6-3, 6-4 success against the fourth seeds to power into
the quarter-finals at this ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 500 Series event held in Beijing, China.
The German-Austrian junction displayed flawless performance to upset Fyrstenberg and Matkowski in their first encounter. They needed almost an hour to outsmart the Poles and secure a spot in the final eight at this outdoor hard court event.
The newly formed tandem of Haas and Melzer made a powerful entry at the National Tennis Center. They drew the first blood in the third game and jumped to a 3-1 lead. They held their remaining serves with poise and capitalised on another break chance in the
last game, eventually sealing the opener by winning six games to three. The German-Austrian pair blocked the lone breakpoint they faced to keep their entire serves and capitalised on two out of three break chances.
Ranked sixth in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Fyrstenberg and Matkowski tried to make a comeback in the following set. They held their opening serve and levelled the scores at 1-1. Despite squandering their two break opportunities, the
Poles held their serves until the ninth game.
Haas and Melzer on the other hand cashed the lone break opportunity in the last game of the second set, eventually registering a 6-4 success.
Overall, the Haas and Melzer spilled more double faults but clobbered a better first serve share of 70 per cent as compared to their rivals’ 65 per cent. They also impressively marked 27 out of 35 points on it and ended the match with 58 points.
Next up for the winning tandem is the Croatian-Australian duo, Marin Cilic and Marinko Matosevic. Cilic and Matosevic bounced back to overpower the South African-American tandem, Kevin Anderson and Sam Querrey, in a three-set thriller to set up this meeting.
They were broken twice but cashed in four out of 11 break chances to steal the spotlight.
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