Mikhail Youzhny ousts Javier Marti in round one – Mutua Madrid Open 2012
World number 34, Mikhail Youzhny, ousted the Spanish wildcard entrant, Javier Marti, in the first round of the Mutua Madrid Open on Monday. He clinched victory in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, to reach the second round of the coveted
event in madrid, Spain.
Youzhny started off with a serve hold and consolidated his position with a thumping breakthrough in the following game. He didn’t spare a single point for his competitor in the third game and registered a resounding lead of 3-0
upfront.
Once again, the pressure was exerted on Marti but the Spaniard escaped the scare this time around and won the first game of the match. He switched the tension to his counterpart; despite squandering two breakpoints, he was able
to win the third and diminished the trail to 2-3.
However, he was unable to clinch a single point on his serve and gifted the breakpoint back to his rival. The Russian didn’t make any mistake and bagged the following serve game after a bit of trouble to register an unassailable
lead of 5-2.
Both players held their serves in the following two games that rounded off the opening set proceedings in favour of Youzhny. Everything was going in favour of the 29-year-old Russian.
Trailing one set down, the 20-year-old Spaniard lost the opening serve game but did well to win one break back in the following game. However, he dropped another serve game and this time the 34th ranked Russian made
no mistake and pounded on the youngster to register a lead of 3-1.
Scores favoured the Russian but the fight was on from the youngster. He bagged the following serve game and limited the lead to just two games. However, a stunning performance from the Russian in the seventh game of the second
set gave him a resounding lead of 5-2 that was good enough to break apart the confidence of the local.
A thumping serve hold ended the match in favour of the Russian who is scheduled to take on either the 10th seed Argentine, Juan Martin Del Potro, or the German tennis ace, Florian Mayer. Both these players will face
each other in the hunt to book a date with the Russian.
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