Marrero/Sa upset Melzer/Roger-Vasselin in the quarter-finals – Winston-Salem Open 2012
Spanish-Brazilian tandem of David Marrero and Andre Sa came back after getting crushed in the opener to edge past the Austrian-French duo of Jurgen Melzer and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 1-6, 7-5, 10-8 at the last-eight stage of Winston-Salem
Open on Thursday.
It took Marrero and Sa one hour and 14 minutes to undo their rivals in a close encounter.
Melzer and Roger-Vasselin made a brilliant start, grabbing first three games to attain a 3-0 lead. The Austrian-French combination earned their second break in the sixth and capitalised on the double advantage to seal it 6-1.
The left and right hand combination hit a single ace and made the same number of double faults in the first set. Melzer and Roger-Vasselin maintained a first serve percentage of 59 and clinched 10 of the 13 points on them. The
Austrian-French pair also returned pretty well, grabbing four of the eight first and six of the 10 second reply points.
Both teams held their opening serve of the second set to square off the proceedings at 1-1. Melzer and Roger-Vasselin allowed their opponents to win just one point in the following two games, taking a 3-1 lead. However, Marrero
and Sa did not take much to equalise the proceedings at 3-3. The next five games went with serves, taking the score to 6-5 in favour of the Spanish-Brazilian duo. Melzer and Roger-Vasselin could not hold their serve at that moment and went down 5-7.
Marrero and Sa smacked one ace and committed a couple of double faults in the second set, keeping their first serve percentage at 63 and pocketing 14 of the 20 points on them. The Spanish-Brazilian tandem gave an ordinary performance
on the replies to their opponent’s deliveries, losing 16 of the 23 and five of the eight points on the first and second returns respectively. Marrero and Sa put away three of the four break threats they came across and availed both chances they created.
The Spanish-Brazilian pair went neck to neck in the first 12 points of the match tie-breaker, equalising the score at 6-6. Marrero and Sa succeeded in winning four of the six following points and closing it 10-8.
The 197th ranked team neither hit any ace nor committed any double fault in the super tie-breaker. They did not lose even a single point on their first serves, winning all five of them.
Marrero and Sa will play the Mexican-American combination of Santiago Gonzalez and Scott Lipsky in the semi-finals.
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