Marinko Matosevic surprises Florian Mayer in the first round – Swiss Indoors Basel 2012
Ranked 51st in the world, Marinko Matosevic of Australia made the biggest upset of the tournament so far by topping the seventh seed from Germany, Florian Mayer, in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 in the opening round of the
Swiss Indoors Basel.
With this win, Matosevic has ensured that he becomes his country’s highest ranked tennis player on the coming Monday. He will replace the 20-year-old, Bernard Tomic, as Australian number one when the rankings get updated at the
start of next week.
Tomic, who is currently at the 48th position, would drop one place, after getting ousted in the first round of this event. On the other hand, Matosevic would rise to 47th spot or higher even he loses in the
next round.
Mayer hit the first blow, nailing a break in the very first game to move ahead 1-0 but he failed to consolidate on it, levelling the proceedings at 1-1. Momentum went to Matosevic’s side at that moment, as the Australian contender
captured five of the next six games to win 6-2.
The 27-year-old, Matosevic, smashed one ace but also committed the same number of double fault in the first set. The Australian national kept his first serve percentage at 60 and claimed nine of the 12 points on them. His only
weakness was his sloppy second deliveries, dropping five of the eight points.
Carrying the winning momentum into the second set, Matosevic bagged opening three games to race to a 3-0 lead. The Australian participant made sure that his more experienced German rival could not bounce back, winning his entire
service games comfortably to claim it 6-3.
Matosevic fired one ace and 79 percent of the first deliveries, converting 19 of the 23 of them into points. The Australian player remained off colour on his second serves and first returns too this time, throwing away four of
the six and 13 of the 16 points on them. Though, he balanced that by pocketing seven of the 10 on the second replies.
The Australian contestant will lock horns with the South African number one, Kevin Anderson, in the round two.
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