Henri Kontinen outplays Roberto Bautista-Agut in the second round – Open Castilla y Leon 2011 CH
Special exempt in the tournament, Henri Kontinen of Finland continued his brilliant run by defeating Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain in the second round of Open Castilla y Leon on Thursday afternoon.
Being played on the hard courts of Segovia, Spain, the contest ended in the dismay of the local crowd, as Bautista-Agut got dispensed out of the tournament. Kontinen wrapped up victory in three sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, by taking two hours and sixteen minutes of play to advance to the quarter-finals of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event.
The Spaniard dropped the opening set early in the matchup to fall on the back foot but he made a tremendous recovery in the following set to bounce back in the game. A decisive third set was enforced in the matchup and Bautista-Agut failed to come up to the expectations of the local crowd, crumbling to let his opponent fly away with victory in the end.
Despite of spilling out eight double faults in the game, Kontinen reeled off 41 first serve points, with the Spaniard leading him with 45 points. Bautista-Agut squandered away five break opportunities in the game and converted only two chances, while suffering three out of nine break points from his opponent to finish the matchup on the losing end.
Bautista-Agut dropped serve in the very first game of the match and then failed to recover from the early damage done in the rest of the set. Kontinen secured 16 first serve points to wrap up the opening set at 6-4, getting into a one-set lead.
The following set was off to a steady start, with no serve breaks in the opening five games. Bautista-Agut finally got into lead when he nailed his first serve break of the day in the sixth game and reeled off 16 out of 17 first serve points to close out the second set in his name at 6-3, levelling the matchup at 1-1.
The final set took off with an early exchange of serve breaks from both men, followed by a regular game to take the scores to 5-4, with Kontinen leading. Third serve break of the day from Kontinen in the 10th game sealed victory for him at 6-4, getting him a pass to the quarter-final draws of Open Castilla y Leon. He will take on the third seeded Slovakian competitor, Karol Beck, in the next round to get a place in the semis.
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