Kevin Anderson dismisses Pablo Cuevas in three sets at 2011 Barcelona Open
South African seeded pro Kevin Anderson defeated Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay in three sets at the 2011 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, sending his opponent home in the first round of the ATP World Tour Masters 500 Series tournament.
Anderson, who is seeded fourteenth at the clay event, defeated Cuevas 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 to lock a second round spot for himself. The South African pro took a little under two hours and twenty minutes to defeat his opponent.
Both tennis pros seemed to be evenly matched in the first set of their opening match, with Anderson scoring three aces and committing one double fault. Cuevas managed two aces, but also kept his game error free without any double
faults. Anderson took the lead by defending himself against both break points, in addition to which he also broke Cuevas once. The pro took the first set 7-5, after winning 56 per cent of the points played.
The match took a turn in Cuevas’s favour in the next set of the match, scoring two aces and committing no double faults to break Kevin Anderson twice. The Uruguayan pro was not broken once during this set, and won an impressive
58 per cent of the points played to take the second set 6-3. At this point, the score-line was 7-5, 3-6 with the first set going to Anderson.
Spectators were quite sure that the third set would be a difficult one for Anderson, but fans of the South African pro need not have worried. Although both players scored one ace apiece and also committed one double fault each,
Anderson took the advantage by successfully converting one of six break points against Cuevas. The Uruguayan pro could not break Anderson even once in this set, and the South African went on to win an easy 55 per cent of the total points in the set. He won
the match with a 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 score-line.
Kevin Anderson, who is ranked World Number 35, will be taking on Romanian World Number 66 Victor Hanescu in the second round on Barcelona clay.
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