Knowle/Polasek stun Fleming/Hutchins in the opening round of doubles – Valencia Open 2012
Unseeded Austrian-Slovakian combination of Julian Knowle and Filip Polasek registered a stunning victory against the fourth seeded hot favourite British duo of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins in the very first round of Valencia Open on Wednesday. They battled for one hour and 33 minutes before claiming the three-set thriller at 4-6, 6-4, 10-5.
It was a gruelling contest, with both teams labouring extremely hard to get the better of one another. Fleming and Hutchins were off to their usual aggressive start in the opening set and reeled off 13 out of 16 first serve points to get on top. They drew first blood to break into the lead but Knowle and Polasek came back very strongly with a cracking break point conversion. However, the fourth seeded Brits nailed another cracking serve break to wrap up the opening set at 6-4.
Tide turned in the following set, as Knowle and Polasek came out firing at their superior-ranked opponents. They crafted a total of five break opportunities in the set but only one conversion proved sufficient for them to bag the second set at 6-4. Fleming and Hutchins squanders three priceless break chances in the set and had to pay the price in the end.
Knowle and Polasek carried on their winning impetus in the decisive set and gave no chance to the fourth seeded Britons to get settled. They concluded their upset victory at 10-5 to clear the opening round of the tournament.
It was the second meeting between these two teams this season and the head-to-head series is now levelled at 1-1. The reigning world number nine pair of Fleming and Hutchins outplayed the Austrian-Slovakian tandem in the quarter-final round of Malaysia Open last month. It was the payback time for Knowle and Polasek this Wednesday and they rallied past the Brits to book a berth in the quarter-final round of Valencia Open.
Knowle and Polasek will take on the belligerent wildcard duo of David Ferrer and Juan Carlos Ferrer in the round of eight later this week. The home favourite Spanish tandem registered a hard-fought victory against the Argentine-Ukrainian combination of Carlos Berlocq and Alexandr Dolgopolov, 3-6, 6-3, 10-7, in the opening round on Wednesday.
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