Marcel Granollers defeats Daniel Brands in three sets at Barcelona Open
Spanish tennis player Marcel Granollers emerged victorious at the first round of the 2011 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, defeating German tennis pro Daniel Brands in his opening match at the 2011 ATP World Tour Masters 500 series
tournament. The event is part of the clay swing which takes place before the second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open. Granollers secured a second round spot by defeating Brands in three lopsided sets, winning the match 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-1. The Spanish
player took over two hours and forty-five minutes to oust his opponent.
Granollers and Brands were quite evenly matched in the first set of the match, although Granollers retained a bit of an edge after breaking the German player twice. Brands broke Granollers once as well, but could not maintain a
hold over the first set and lost the match with seven points less than those of Granollers. The Spaniard took the set 7-5, and began play for the second set of the match. However, Brands appeared to be indomitable and fought back even harder than he had in
the last set, breaking his opponent twice to make up for the two break points which Granollers successfully converted.
The German player gave Granollers a run for his money in this set, and pushed the set into a tie-breaker, which he won with two points over Granollers. This moved the entire match into a third, tie-breaking set. Brands’s effort
in the second set was wasted at this point during the match, as he seemed to be exhausted. Granollers capitalized on this opportunity and scored one ace, in addition to converting two of three break points successfully. The player ended the set with a fry,
after winning a massive 68 per cent of the total points. The final score-line was 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-1.
World Number 52 Marcel Granollers has been part of the ATP since 2003, and has taken home the trophy for one title so far. He will be facing sixth seeded Austrian pro Jurgen Melzer in the second round of the Barcelona event.
Tags: