Mikhail Youzhny outplays Marcel Granollers in the opening tie at Power Horse World Team Cup
World number 13, Mikhail Youzhny, gave Russia the perfect start at the round robin of the Power Horse World Team Cup by defeating Marcel Granollers of Spain in his singles rubber. He accomplished his straight sets victory at 6-3,
6-4, in 90 minutes to give Russia 1-0 lead in its opening tie against Spain.
28-year-old Russian faced no real challenge in disposing of Granollers in the opening rubber of the competition and raced through the competition convincingly. In the contest being played at the Rochusclub in Dusseldorf, Germany,
Youzhny appeared in great command throughout the game and gave no room to his opponent to make his way in the match. The two men encountered each other earlier this season in Rotterdam, where the Russian outplayed Granollers in straight sets 6-2, 7-6(6) in
the round of 32.
Rated number 47 in world rankings, Granollers hung in the contest for quite a while but failed to come on top of his strong opponent in the end. He took off the contest with aggression but his flare faded out as the game proceeded.
The Spaniard couldn’t craft break opportunities on regular occasions, something done masterfully by Youzhny in the contest. Although Granollers didn’t commit any double fault in the game, his large number of unforced errors proved much taxing for him.
Youzhny ignited the contest with his typical aggression, trying to exert early pressure upon his opponent. The Russian attacked the net on regularity to convert juicy volleys into cross-court winners. The Spanish rival kept his
focus in the game and held his serve in the opening three games before a sloppy serve game from him provided an opportunity to Youzhny to strike his first break of the matchup. The Russian go this momentum from the serve break and reeled off the next game
as well to close the first set at 6-3.
The Russian domination continued in the second set as well, with Youzhny breaking in the very first game to lead 2-0. His serve precision rose to an impressive 84 per cent and he clinched 16 of 21 first serve points in the second
set. Granollers stung break point in the fifth game but suffered the same in the very next game to remain at disadvantage. The contest ended in Youzhny’s favour at 6-4 when the Spaniard thumped a backhand into the net to bring damage to his team.
Team Russia got to a solid lead of 2-0 in its first tie as Igor Andreev also won his singles rubber against Daniel Gimeno-Traver later in the evening.
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