Martin Klizan upsets Albert Ramos in final qualifying round – Valencia Open 500 2011
Spanish, Albert Ramos, locked horns with the Slovakian, Martin Klizan, in the final qualifying round of the Valencia Open 500, contested in Spain, on Sunday October 30th. It was a perfect opportunity for the Spanish
to level the head-to-head tally with one wins apiece on his home turf but he couldn’t take advantage of several factors in his favour and lost the battle 4-6, 6-1, 4-6 in two hours and eighteen minutes.
Both players had lost three out of last four encounters they played and were looking extremely rusty at the court. Multiple factors like superior ranking, home crowd and familiar weather conditions were hinting towards the victory
for the local boy but despite all advantages favouring the Spanish, it was Klizan who had the final glory. Crowd gathered in numbers to support their national hero who left them in disbelief and despair.
Pressure of everything going against the Slovakian did dismantle his confidence at the start that struck couple of double-faults on trot and gave the initial advantage to his opponent. The score was 2-0 in favour of the home boy
at that stage.
Klizan fought back into the game with back to back break points and pushed the score to 3-2 in his favour. Both players exchanged breaks in the next two games to take the score to 4-3. Slovakian won the next game and took lead
of two games.
It was mandatory for the Spanish match favourite to hold on to his serve and break in the next to level the score but he couldn’t perform the latter and lost the first set. Trailing one set down and pressure to perform at home
turf was mounting on him.
Ramos came back strong and didn’t allow his competitor to win a single game for the first five games of the set that included three breakpoints and two breathtaking aces. Finally 22-year-old Slovakian won a game on his serve but
it was a mere consolation as the set was over in the next game.
There were three different stages when the visitor had an opportunity to break his opponent’s serve but he couldn’t capitalize on any of them and hence faced a crushing defeat in the second set. Spectators were eagerly waiting
for their national hero to hammer his competitor in the next set but outcome was otherwise.
Third set was an epic blow to blow contest as seven games out of ten were won on breaks. It started with the exchange of breaks and continued till the first six games before Klizan finally managed to hold on to his serve and take
4-3 lead.
The final break of the match came at ninth game when Slovakian broke again to the lead and held on to his serve to finish it off in grand fashion. Spectators loved every bit of it but were left dejected at the loss of their hot
favourite.
Martin Klizan moves into the first round of the tournament where Kevin Anderson of Russian squares-off against him.
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