Juan Ferrero blue rains on Mikhail Youzhny to move into the quarterfinals – Mercedes Cup 2011
Espanola, Juan Carlos Ferrero, surpassed the 29-year-old, Mikhail Youzhny in the second round of the 2011 Mercedes Cup at the TC Weissenhof Court in Stuttgart, Germany. Carlos bounced back from being a set down to secure his victory in an exciting two hours Fifteen minutes and fifty nine seconds.
Prior to this event both the players had contested against each other three times (2009, 2007 and 2003). Thus not meeting for the first time the players were familiar with each other’s style and technique. With Juan Carlos winning the first match (2003), Mikhail avenged his loss in 2007, but only to lose again to Carlos at Wimbledon, Great Britain, where Ferrero had battled it out on an indoor grass court and triumphed 6-3, 7-6(3) 6-3 in 2009 and hence, leading the head to head 2-1. The Higher Power had granted Youzhny another chance to even out the score with his old time competitor (Juan) at the second round of the Mercedes Cup on Thursday.
Youzhny serving first; had served two aces, the Russian’s accuracy seemed to falter and he struck 3 double faults out of which one hit the net and the other two were line faults but he wasn’t to give up easily. He had a seventy five percent first serve win along with a mediocre first return (winning only thirty three percent) and also gave a break point to his opponent’s advantage. The match was a close tie between both the players as not only did they have the same win percentage, of total set serve points won (which was sixty five percent each) but also the same percentage of thirty three percent (each) win in the total return set points and also both the players had managed to win their break points (one each), the only reason why the Espanola lost was because he had a poor return serve in the entire set and his total set return points where sixteen out of forty six, while his rival’s (Juan) were fifteen out of forty three. Hence, winning the match with a mere two percent victory 7-6(6).
After being defeated in the first set the 31-year-old bounced right back into the second set. Juan serving first; smashed three aces, had extreme precision and served zero double faults, won eighty five percent of his first serve points along with fifty percent win in first return points where as his opponent won a fifty percent of his first serve points and had a very lousy return game only winning a mere fifteen percent in the first return. In spite of winning the first set, in the second set it was as if he didn’t even try! the overall set saw Mikhail play; two double faults, win only fifteen out of twenty eight total serve points in the set along with a pathetic three out of nineteen in total set return points and not mention, he gave two breakpoints to Ferrero’s advantage which he won. Therefore he had an easy victory of 6-2.
By the end of the second set the score card read 1:1 this was the final deciding set of the match; however, it proved to be a comprehensive victory for the Spaniard but it was a debacle for Mikhail as he did not avail the chance to even the head to head tie instead he played a poor first return serve winning only four out of fifteen points, he also gave three points which were taken to his opponents advantage. His overall total set serve points won were a mere forty four percent along with, below the par total set return points which amounted to a bare thirty eight percent and therefore achieving only twenty four points out of the total fifty nine points of the total set. While, his opponent the Spaniard was on fire serving excellently on his return game and on his serve by only giving one breakpoint to his opponent. His total set serve score was a grand sixty three percent win with an above average fifty six percent win on his total return points and had a total of thirty five out of fifty nine points out of the total set points, winning the match 2-1
Despite the age factor both the later sets were largely dominated by Juan’s presence on the court; overall, Juan had aced five times, won sixty eight percent of his total service points along with forty four percent of total return points and hence achieved a total of a hundred and eight points out of a hundred and ninety five.
Juan has managed to qualify to the quarterfinal where he will be facing his compatriot, Marcel Granollers.
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