Matthew Ebden edges past Yen-Hsun Lu into main draw – Rakuten Open 2011
Matthew Ebden, world No.137, overwhelmed his final qualifier counterpart on Sunday, 2nd October, Yen-Hsun Lu, World No.66, as he came up a set down to defeat the Taipei 2-6, 7-6(5), 7-5, in a long 2 hour and 26 minutes
match of the Rakuten Open 2011. Playing on blue hard court, Ariake Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan, Ebden went down first, however, managed to strike back up and making it into the main draw of the ATP Tour 500 event.
Starting up with serving first, Ebden went on winning the first game of the match and rolled down the scoreboard, 1-0. Following the first game successor, Lu went to level the score in no time and switched the serve, 1-1. Breaking
the world No. 137, the Taipei went on to lead the set 2-1 and onto the next game.
Serving out game 4, Lu went ballistic as he mustered away another breakpoint and extended his lead to 3 games, 4-1. The Aussie went furious as he could not hold on to the blistering serves the Taipei did. Lu, world No.66 served
out game 6 before the Aussie took out his second win to change the scoreboard to 2-5.
With the decider game on its way, the 28-year-old Taipei bagged the set as he served out the last game of the set, game 8, winning the set 6-2 and moved on to the next.
With the first set lost, Ebden went on for his revenge. Serving out game 1, the Aussie took the lead and stood to return next. Levelling up instantly, Lu held off equal and switched back the serve, 1-1. With the two rallying down
game winning on respective serves, the two levelled up again and again at 2-2, 3-3, 4-4 and at 5-5.
Finally, the second set ended up in a fiery tiebreak with Ebden to serve first. With a magnificent 7-5 run, the Aussie world No.137 levelled up the match scores bagging the second set 7-6(5) and went on the play the decider set.
Firing off the set 3, Lu served out the first game of the set, 1-0. Levelling up next, Ebden broke the Taipei in game 3 to take hold of the set, 2-1. With the Aussie serving next, he extended his lead to 3-1 before Lu won his second
game of the set and cut the lead to 3-2.
Maintaining his lead Ebden served out game 6 however, could not hold on to the lead long enough as the world no.66 served-n-broke the next two games and levelled up the scores at 4-4. Serving out a game each the two again stood
equal as the set went up to a boiling point.
Ebden struck back in game 11 as he broke the world No.66 and served out game 12 to bag the third set of the match and won the match 2-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 to walk in to the main draw of the ATP tour 500 event.
Tags: