Michael Berrer shakes off Igor Andreev in first round match – Slovak Open 2011
Michael Berrer, German world No.106 and the seventh seed of Slovak Open 2011, played his opening round fixture against Russian world No.117, Igor Andreev, ousting him with a marvellous comeback in the third set, concluding the
match 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2 in an hour and 48 minutes hard indoor circuit match on Wednesday, 16th of November 2011.
Walking down the indoor blue court, Andreev took his side to serve the match opener, winning the toss; however, the 28-year-old went down early and hard as Berrer, veteran German, bulldozed the lower ranked Russian to capture the
first game, 1-0.
Extending his lead, Berrer managed to serve out his opening serve to extend his lead to two straight games. Andreev came back in the game winning his second service game to cut down the lead to 2-1, yet, was unable to cover up
the lead.
Berrer maintained his lead throughout the set along with a concrete defence leading him to win the match opening set, 6-4, and moved on to the second set and returned first.
With a hard knock down in the first set, Andreev juggled his way up in the second. Serving the starter, world no.117 mustered away with the first game, 1-0, followed by the higher ranked German levelling up the difference instantly,
1-1.
The two fired up winners next and bagged games of their respective serves to level up again at 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, and then on 5-5. The set eventually went into a tiebreaker with Andreev to start first. Battling out neck-and-neck, the
two levelled up at 1-1, 2-2 and on 3-3. However, Andreev managed to pull off the last two points to finish off the tiebreaker with a close call, 7-5, winning the set, 7-6(5), equalling up the match scores to 1-1.
Moving on with the decider, Berrer stormed in with a fierce comeback winning the first game with a triple game point winner, 1-0. Andreev followed at first evening up at 1-1 and then at 2-2, however, the experienced German struck
hard next as he served out game five, 3-2, and broke the lower ranked Russian in game six to lead the battle 4-2.
Two wins near to his victory, Berrer hammered the 28-year-old with a service winner followed by the last win, a breakpoint, to conclude the set 6-2, and the match in a tough three set fight.
Making his way through the opening round of the ATP Challenger tour, Berrer now moves on to play his second stage fixture against Croatian, Ante Pavic, for a seat in the quarter-finals.
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