Kevin Anderson battles past Grigor Dimitrov in the opening round – SAP Open 2012
Sixth seed, Kevin Anderson, made an epic comeback from a set down to tumble over the Bulgarian star, Grigor Dimitrov, in three sets nail-biter at the SAP Open 2012 on Monday. He clobbered a 2-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(3) victory over the 20-year-old to advance into the second round at this ATP World Tour 250 series event held in San Jose, United States.
World number 35, Anderson, re-ignited his last year spark to edge past the Bulgarian in their second meeting. He not only avenged his loss at the AEGON International last year but also secured a place in the round of 16.
The Bulgarian youngster thundered into the HP Pavilion and drew the first blood in the opening game. He then held remaining serves and capitalised on another break chance in the seventh game to seal the opener by winning six games to two.
The frustrated seed sought the $600,000 track in the following set. He failed to find any break opportunity but was never challenged with a breakpoint. The set went to a tie-breaker where Anderson outclassed his opponent and pocketed the equaliser with a 7-6(5) win.
The match was standing on a knife edge but the contender who stayed focused in the set was the Johannesburg native. Anderson dusted away all three breakpoints he came across to keep his entire serves. However, he failed to seek any break opportunity and dragged the set to a tie-breaker. The 25-year-old outshined his rival completely in it and clinched the decider with a 7-6(3) score line.
Summing up the seed’s performance, Anderson failed to convert the only break chance to his advantage and defended seven out of nine breakpoints he encountered. However, the South African fired 15 aces and magnificently clicked 63 out of 76 points on his better first serve share to outclass his opponent.
Next up for the South African number one is the winner of the match between the Israeli Ace, Dudi Sela, and the Australian rising star, Matthew Ebden.
Earlier, South Africa’s Izak Van Der Merwe faced a different fate. He broke Tobias Kamke’s serve once but failed to save all four breakpoints he came across, subsequently suffering a 3-6, 3-6 shock in an hour and 16-minutes marathon.
Merwe produced an acceptable first serve share of 51 percent as compared to the German’s 64 percent and marked 14 out of 26 points on it. He finished the match with 45 points as compared to the German’s 64.
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