Kevin Anderson overcomes Marcos Baghdatis in second round – Erste Bank Open 2011
Kevin Anderson, South African world No.32, ripped apart the former world No.8, Marcos Baghdatis, Cypriot, in the second round melee of Erste Bank Open 2011 on Wednesday, 26th October at Wiener Stadthalle, Vienna. Battling
out for an hour and 30 minutes, South African swirled away winning the indoor hard court match 6-2, 7-6(5) to make his way into the round of 8.
Anderson started off with serving the match opener rolling down the scoreboard, 1-0. Levelling up right away, Baghdatis took control serving out his opening serve, 1-1, and switched the serve back. World No.32, South African, had
a greater advantage of his gigantic height, 6’8”, as he bomb shelled the 26-year-old Cypriot with blazing aces throughout.
Winning away the third game, 2-1, the South African, struck as he broke Baghdatis in game four and served out game five to lead the set, 4-1. With just two more to go for Anderson to captivate set 1, the 25-year-old broke again
extending his lead to 5-1, however, the Cypriot broke back cutting down the lead to 5-2.
Still left with one more win to finish off with the set, Anderson hammered the former world No.8 with a double set point winner pocketing the set 6-2, and onto the next.
Continuing with set two, South African kept on hampering the former world No.8, winning the opening set, 1-0. Covering up the lead, Baghdatis served out game 2, 1-1, switching back the serve. Breaking the Cypriot in game 3, the
25-year-old took control following with a service win in game 4 to lead the set, 3-1.
Baghdatis did cut the lead to 3-2, winning game five, however, could not level up until game 10. With scores at 4-5, world No.59 struck back with a breakpoint and levelled up, 5-5. Game 10 followed up with 2 breakpoint games, a
win for each of the two, and the set went into a tiebreaker.
Serving first for the tiebreaker, Anderson opened up with winning the first point; however, the Cypriot kept on the South Africans tail. With point at 3-3, Anderson nicked back 3 consecutive points to lead 6-3. 26-year-old did
cut lead to 6-5, yet could not end up winning as the higher ranked rival blistered away with a forehand match point winner to bag the tiebreaker, 7-5, and the set, 7-6(5) to win the match in straight sets.
Through into the quarter-final with a marvellous second round win, Anderson will now play the winner of the match between Guillermo Garcia and Jurgen Melzer.
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