Jurgen Melzer battles past Pablo Andujar to reach round two – China Open 2012
Austrian number one, Jurgen Melzer, needed three sets to triumph over the Spanish challenger, Pablo Andujar, at the China Open 2012, an ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 500 Series event held in Beijing. He recorded a 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(3)
victory against the 26-year-old to enter the second round on Tuesday.
The left-hander from Austria showed exceptional skills, eventually sealing the deal in two hours and 25 minutes. Battling each other for the first time, Melzer took lead in the FedEx ATP Head 2 Head Series against the Cuenca native and progressed into the
round of 16 at this outdoor hard event.
The Austrian veteran made quick in-roads at the National Tennis Center. He drew the first blood in the opening game and jumped to a 2-0 lead. After the Spaniard kept his serve in the third game, Melzer unleashed barrage of massive forehands and stroke out
the last four games. He swiped his entire serves without facing any trouble and cashed in three out of four break chances to pull out the opener with a breadstick.
The world number 41 came into action in the following set. He assertively bagged his entire serves after warding off all three breakpoints he faced. Andujar got the breakthrough in the ninth game after capitalising on one out of six break chances and clinched
the equaliser with a 6-4 score line.
Ranked 37th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Melzer re-gained his early momentum in the final set. He lost his serve twice early on and went 2-5 down. However, the Austrian went berserk and levelled the scores at 5-5. He exchanged
another serve break and eventually took the set to a tie-breaker. The Austrian cruised to a 5-1 lead in it before closing out the decider with a 7-6(3) success.
The Vienna native struck 12 aces and spilled fewer double faults. He produced a lower first serve share of 55 per cent as compared to his rival’s 62 per cent but amazingly marked 40 out of 54 points on it.
Melzer will square off against the sixth seed, Alexandr Dolgopolov from Ukraine.
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