Julian Knowle stuns Toshihide Matsui in the final qualifier – Malaysian Open 2012
World number 450th, Toshihide Matsui, received a shocker at the hands of the Austrian professional, Julian Knowle, in the final qualifying round of the Malaysian Open 2012. Knowle summed up his triumph
in three sets, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, in two hours and 11 minutes.
The 34-year-old Japanese displayed a classic performance in the opener and got into the lead by breaking his rival’s serve in the fourth game. He successfully journeyed through the set without facing any difficulty
and maintained his upper hand, indicating his excellent run of form. Knowle, on the contrary, was unable to face the pressure of his rival and he could not bounce back. Matsui swiftly concluded the first set with a 6-3 score line.
In the second set, the 38-year-old, Knowle reversed the winning order. For the initial part of the set, Matsui sustained his lead and busted the Austrian professional’s serve in the third game. However, in the
very next game Knowle broke started to shift the momentum and broke his rival’s serve. He evened out the scores to 2-all in the fourth and 3-all in the sixth games respectively. The Japanese struggled hard but his pace gradually died down. At that momentum,
Knowle broke his serve in the eighth game, to conclude the set with a 6-3 lead.
The 34-year-old Japanese fired six aces onto his challenger and maintained a reasonable initial serve accuracy of 70 percent. He converted 12 of 19 first but just one of eight second delivery points. In response
to that the Austrian had a lower initial serve presentation of 43 percent, bagging away nine of 13 points.
The left-hander, Knowle, stepped on the hard courts in the decider with a strong resolve to upset his competitor. He smashed his rival with powerful ground strokes and completely shattered his confidence by breaking
his serve in the fifth game. Matsui seemed helpless in front of his rival and quickly concluded the set with a 4-6 loss.
The right-hander, Matsui bombarded his opponent with nine aces, but displayed an average 57 percent first serve precision. He also had a remarkable score of 15 of 16 first serve points but lagged behind as he
could not even capitalize a single break point out of the three bestowed on him.
For the first round, Knowle will contest against the Spanish, Albert Ramos.
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