Juan Martin Del Porto crawls past Kevin Anderson into title match – Erste Bank Open 2011
Kevin Anderson of South Africa squared-off against the Argentine, Juan Martin Del Porto, in the semi-final of Erste Bank Open tournament, contested in Austria, on Saturday October 29th. It was the second meeting between
the two and after an enthralling battle of two hours and thirteen minutes; it was 23-year-old Porto who reached the grand finale of the tournament with a score of 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
Both players had lost three matches of their last nine encounters but Argentine was superior in ranking; Porto was World No.15 whilst his opponent was World No.32. Sizeable crowd gathered to witness this second encounter between
the two. Superior rank and head-to-head lead of 1-0 favoured the Argentine.
First set was equally poised as both players capitalized on their serves before Porto broke his opponent’s serve in the fifth game and capitalized by winning on his serve to take the lead of two games and pushed the score to 4-2.
Anderson needed to break back to bring the score on level terms but he couldn’t and Argentine held on his serves to win the set 6-2 and put pressure on his opponent. He struck three aces but was hammered with seven aces in return
that were applauded by the audience in the arena.
Trailing one set down, South African picked up the pace and replied in an aggressive manner by two back-to-back aces in the first game. Both capitalized on their serves carried to score to 3-2 and then came three consecutive breaks
in a row that pushed the score to 5-3 in favour of Anderson.
South African won the set with a final score of 6-3 and pushed the match into the final set.
Third set was pretty smooth and both players didn’t allow their opponent to break before it was Porto who changed gears and broke in the tenth game to clinch the match in an exciting fashion.
Crowd witnessed a thriller and if it was not for a single double-fault in the last game of the match, there was a possibility that match would have been forced into a tie-breaker.
Juan Martin Del Porto plays Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the title match.
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