Lukas Rosol moves past Potito Starace into second round – German Tennis Championships 2011
Lucky loser Lukas Rosol scored a major win by breaking Italian workhorse Potito Starace in two electrifying sets at the bet-at-home Open German Tennis Championships 2011. Rosol, the player with the highest points in the qualifying
round, got his ticket to the main draws when Jeremy Chardy pulled out of the tournament because of an elbow injury. Monday was upsets galore at the exclusive Rothenbaum Tennis Centre and Rosol’s 7-6(5), 6-1 win lived up to the crowd’s expectations. This was
the opponents’ first meeting.
Italian Starace, ranked currently at an enviable 53 has been in the limelight in the recent months. He played a key role in helping Italy trounce Slovenia and end a four match-losing streak. His infallible record at the Davis Cup
now stands at 14-1. Recently he managed to reach the quarter finals at Bastad, Sweden only to be defeated by the titlist Robin Soderling.
The jaw clenching first set saw Rosol opening serve in the first game. Rosol broke Starace’s serve in the second game, limiting him to just 30 points. The game then steadily progressed with both the players handing out extremely
well placed serves and powerful volleys. Starace registered a crucial break of serve further on in the game and the score eased to 5-4 with Rosol in the lead. Rosol delivered three superb aces and Starace trying desperately to stay in the game, fought back
with 2. Starace retained an excellent serve with a percentage of 84% and was able to score 22 points off 31 serves. The closely contested set was settled by a tiebreak. Rosol won the tiebreak by limiting his opponent to just 5 points against his 7. The first
set was the longest of the match, which lasted for almost one hour and eleven minutes.
Starace’s defences proved to be completely futile in the second set. Rosol blatantly took away the set with a resolute 6-1 score. Both the players had a first serve accuracy of 74% but it was Rosol’s ability to win 13 points off
his 14 serves that made all the difference. Rosol breezed through the set and did not face even a single breakpoint situation in the entire set. Starace meanwhile was stunned by his opponent who broke his serve thrice during the set’s course, beginning in
the first set. Even the two aces managed by the struggling Starace weren’t able to help him battle back and the lopsided game closed in Rosol’s favour by a huge margin.
Rosol will now face his toughest competition yet in the tournament when he duels with third seed Nicolas Almagro in the second round match.
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